Strictly Ballroom (1992)

The title itself suggests that there are rules to be followed when dancing in the Pan-Pacific Championships in this film, i.e. only ballroom dancing is allowed. A central theme of this film is that of social influence, which can be seen in many situations throughout the film. The director was clever in using dance to illustrate the concept of social influence, because dancing is an individual expression of self yet there were so many rules for the film's characters to follow if they wanted to win the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix. This provided the director with ample opportunity to depict the way in which social influence works.

Conformity is a major part of the film. The whole idea of Pan-Pacific Grand Prix competition and what it takes to win it is based on the concept of conformity, particularly its normative influence - all contestants must dance using steps that are approved of the Australian Dance Federation, as failure to do so will result in being disqualified or losing the championships. This can be seen when Scott loses one of the competitions at the beginning of the film due to his improvisation of his dance routine, which took his partner Liz by surprise. Afterwards, Liz quit her role as Scott's partner because he refused to conform to the Federation rules that everyone else was abiding by.

Throughout the film, Scott exasperates his family and friends as he insists on dancing the way he wants to instead of the way he is supposed to, even if that means risking the champion title, because all he wanted to do was dance. Fran also displayed non-conformity when she did not want to adhere to the beginner dancer norms, and approached Scott (a dancer who is considered out of her league) to volunteer to be his partner.

After the competition in the film's opening scene, Scott went around asking the people from his mother's dance studio if they had liked his steps, but all they said was that he didn't win, so it didn't matter. Scott became increasingly frustrated as none of them would give him their opinion, including his friend who simply said "I don't know" when he was asked.

That, I believe, is the problem with conformity. When people are so used to changing their perceptions, opinions, or behaviour so that it is consistent with group norms (Kassin, Fein, & Markus, 2011), it results in individuals who do not have their own opinions; they are like mindless sheep.

One method to reduce conformity is to have someone first break free from the majority. When Scott and Fran were ordered to leave the dance floor during the Pan-Pacific Championships, the entire room fell silent; everyone was watching to see what Scott and Fran would do, and no one dared to speak up or otherwise indicate that they disagreed with Fife's directive. Scott's father, Doug, then broke the pattern of conformity by clapping out a beat to show his dissent. As the normative pressure to conform was now reduced, others started clapping along as well, until the whole stadium was filled with a thunderous rhythm.

Although I initially did not like the film as I felt it was too theatrical, I began to enjoy it as it progressed, especially because there were some scenes that I found genuinely funny. I also liked the message that Fran imparted not only to Scott, but also to the viewers - a life lived in fear is a life half lived, which encourages us to pursue our dreams without fear of what others around us might think or say.


References

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2011). Social psychology (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.