Over the years, I saw Dance Academy becoming a tv show with more and more depth as it's protagonists and the audience grew up. It dared to go further with the characters without losing its essence. And I liked to see its movie taking a step further in that direction. Most movies are about chasing dreams, but this one portrays what that really means and how reaching them doesn't necessarily mean to be happy.


"She is a passive protagonist," says Tara about Persephone as she and Ben are trying to adjust the dance to their own version. The same you can say about Tara at the end of the tv show when she can never dance again after she falls for a second time. Like Persephone, she is living an imposed life. Not being able to dance is like going to the underworld for her (so I guess that makes Christian the hot Hades of the story).

In the movie they redeem her just like Tara is doing with Persephone as now she gets to choose the life she wants. However things aren't easy, she has recovered from her injury in the physical aspect but now she has to face the mental scars it left too. Flashbacks of her fall hunt her every time she bends while dancing and the scenes capture it perfectly in a cringing but beautiful way as she imagines herself drowning.

After a lot of struggle, Tara does finally get a contract to be part of a ballet company, she achieves the dream she has been working for her whole life, hurray! but then she realizes something: that it doesn't make her happy. Her dream isn't what she expected anymore. Along her journey to get it, she has found herself, and what really matters to her. She experienced the life of a professional ballet dancer and the reality of having to give up everything for it, isn't worth it anymore. Just like she changed the perspective of Persephone's story, she realizes she can do the same with what happened to her and have other possibilities that truly make her happy with the people she loves.