Breakdance: The Movie

Released in 1984, Breakin' also known as Breakdance: The Movie, was the first movie of its kind and a blueprint for all dance movies of its type to follow. This movie took you into the world of street dance, and although it might seem dated now due to the dialogue and fashion that some might find amusing, this movie reflected the style of that time period and the dance craze that was sweeping the nation. 'Turbo' and 'Ozone' the two main guys in this movie had some great moves, i also liked what they did with 'Kelly' the female lead roles character, making her from a contemporary dance background instead of a street dancer which she had to learn to become through a duration of the movie with turbo and ozone as her teachers, we also get to see how she incorporates her own style of dance into the mix and teach turbo and ozone a little about the

world she's from which i found made the story more interesting and global, another memorable moment in this movie was the broom dance by Turbo. The energy and enthusiasm that the cast members brung to the screen is enough to make you want to start 'poppin' and locking' which was a style of breakdance used in this movie. The film was inspired by a 1983 German documentary entitled Breakin' and Enterin' set in Los Angeles, many of the artists and dancers went straight from the Breakin' and Enterin' documentary to star in the movie, This was a entertaining watch and i would recommend it, especially if you're into dance. Breakdance also had a sequel with the return of the cast members in Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo which came out a year later in 1985.

Jean-Claude Van Damme in the background next to Turbo

A little random info is that the muscles from brussels himself, Jean-Claude Van Damme made his first appearance in this movie as an extra, another random fact is that this was also the rapper Ice T's first movie, he played a club M.C. and described the movie and his part in it as "wack" (not good). 

Ice T in the movie

Synopsis and trailer

Kelly (Lucinda Dickey) is a classically trained jazz dancer who's tired of warding off her amorous teacher and hungry for a new outlet. When she befriends street dancers Ozone (Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones) and Turbo (Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers), she's blown away by their unique and original moves. She soon volunteers to help them defeat a rival group of street dancers, learning break-dancing skills along the way and sharing some moves of her own.

Directed by: Joel Silberg

Produced by: Allen DeBevoise, David Zito
Executive Producers: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus
Written by:
screenplay: Charles Parker, Allen DeBevoise
story: Charles Parker, Allen DeBevoise, Gerald Scaife

Starring: Lucinda Dickey, Shabba Doo, Boogaloo Shrimp, Ben Lokey, Phineas Newborn III, Christopher McDonald

Music by: Michael Boyd, Gary Remal
Cinematography: Hanania Baer
Edited by: Larry Bock, Gib Jaffe, Vincent Sklena
Distributed by: MGM/UA Entertainment Company (USA)
Cannon Films (non-USA)

Release dates: May 4, 1984

Running time: 1hr 30mins.

Hear Me Move

USA as done it many times, India does it all the time, now its South Africa's turn! thats right, a dance movie. Screened at both the Cannes and London Film Festivals, Hear me Move is a landmark movie that follows the story of a young man named Muzi, played by new actor Nyaniso Dzedze, set in Johannesburg, and directed by Scotness L. Smith, here is a brief outline of the story, “The son of a famous street dancer tries to discover the truth about his father's tragic death 12 years prior. When he joins forces with his father's dance partner, he finds himself embroiled in a bitter rivalry that pushes him to his limit”.

Remarks Smith: “Was I going for the poverty grade in movies such as Tsotsi and
Yesterday? No, I wanted vibrant colour, sweat, glistening skin and we were
actually shooting during the bloom of graffiti in Jo’burg”.

Urban theme from set

 Here's the full synopsis (spoiler alert) and trailer

Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Muzi is a street dance prodigy struggling to keep a promise he made to his mother to never dance again after his equally gifted father was murdered at a street party twelve years earlier. Little does he know that his father's death was not as everyone believed it to be. When his father's ex-dance partner, Shoes, approaches Muzi to join his dance crew, "Sbujwa Nation", Muzi has to choose between finding out the truth about his father's death or disappointing his mother. What he does not realize is that by joining Shoes's crew, he will make himself mortal enemies with Prince, the former leader of Shoes's crew and head of a new dance crew that's taking the city by storm. As Muzi struggles to adapt to his new crew, Prince garthers support throughout the dance community by upstaging Sbujwa Nation whenever he can and gaining popularity ahead of the big dance competition that everyone is working towards, titled Hear ME Move. Muzi has to dig deep and come up with something that the crowds have never seen before, while at the same time fighting to keep the crew together in the face of backstabbing, jealousy and his budding romance with Khanyi, the stunningly beautiful girl in Sbujwa Nation and Muzis school mate in college. Eventually he finds an old VHS tape that his father left him before he died, and that proves to be the game changer.

Producer Wandile Molebatsi, who also plays the part of Thami Skhulu, says it’s a film maker’s dream come true, The director Scotness L. Smith also had this to say about the landmark movie, 'It may not look like it, but this is a political film. Because it's the first film which lets us talk in a language that is our language. The language of our dance'.

The dance form in the movie is called, Sbujwa, which originated from Pantsula, the South African dance form from the 50s and 60s

Dance scene from Hear Me Move

Hear Me Move features energetic "sbujwa" and "pantsula" dance sequences, choreographed by the award-winning Paul Modjadji, that play out against the backdrop of a gritty urban Johannesburg seldom seen on the silver screen. Smith says, "We opted to focus on sbujwa and pantsula, our home grown urban street dances, because we wanted South Africans to see themselves and be proud of their contemporary culture."

Here is an interview with Bontle Modiselle who plays the female lead role

Sbujwa Nation

Running Time: 1h 2mins

Genre: Dance, Music, Drama

Release Date: 27 Feb  2015                                

Language: English/Zulu with English Subtitles

Age Restriction: 13

                                   

Cast:

             Thembi Seeti, Amanda Du Pont, Boity Thulo, Lorcia Cooper, Khanyi Mbau, Nyaniso Dzedze, Bontle Modiselle, Mbuso Kgarebe

Producer: Wandile Molebatsi 
Director: Scottness L. Smith
Choreographer: Paul Modjadji.
Music: Zethu Mashika