Dance dance dance

Crazy day at work today - juggling the usual workload around an event we do each year for journalism students down at Redfern Town Hall. There's always this euphoria that takes over when an event finally finishes. But this time, as we collected used paper cups and packed down tables and stacked up chairs, there was even more than the usual hyper-relief. Because there'd been an overlap in bookings at the hall, and a community line dance group couldn't wait to start practicing their routines until we'd put everything away. So there we were, half joining in to the euro-trance covers of "Summer Holiday" and Steps' classic "5, 6, 7, 8" while a motley crew of Chinese geriatrics, kids in primary school uniforms and Redfern sistas busted out their moves.

There really is nothing more cathartic and rejuvenating than really loud, really bad music after a long day. It's a primal thing I guess - as Mr Darcy would say, "any savage can dance". But let's not scoff. A whole, awesome genre of movies has been founded on the redemptive power of dance. The kind of classics you don't tell anyone you stay home to watch on a Friday night: Centre Stage, Save The Last Dance, Step Up, Step Up IV Fight The Power or whatever the latest sequel was. How easy would it be to write one of those dance movies? You could put together a generic form script that just has multi-choice options on certain elements, throw in a Jamiroquai montage with some costume changes that defy the laws of time and space at the end and BAM you're an auteur.

Here's one you can play along with at home:

(Stella/Svetlana/Shanaynay) is a sweet girl from the (right/wrong) side of the tracks who has latent talent as a (ballet/burlesque/crunk) dancer. Despite grappling with a difficult home life and her (eating disorder/shady dealings with underworld mobsters/mother's drug addiction), she falls in love with a (ladykiller choreographer/suprisingly ripped toilet-cleaner/pimp with a heart of gold) and together they beat the odds to win the local talent quest and (avenge her sister's death/raise money for puppy epilepsy/become the best goddamn dancer in the American ballet).

Shouldn't have had that last glass of chardonnay, should I?! Better finish my work now.....