Strictly Ballroom

The term Strictly Ballroom is an oxymoron; it is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in a conjunction. I think the movie was entitled that way because, dancing supposed to be an individual expression, it is a way for us to express how we feel, allows us to be and feel free, and to find a sense of self. However, in a ballroom dancing competition, there are rules and regulations for us to comply; hence, we have the freedom to express, but, to a certain degree. Henceforth, with the presence of rules and regulations, influence ensues. Social influence to be exact. Social influence can be divided into three components, which are Conformity, Compliance and Obedience.

            Conformity within a group brings about members changing their attitudes and beliefs in order to match to those people within the group, and furthermore, those who conform tend to be either compliant or obedient. One very prominent example that we can observe conformity in this movies was when Scott’s father, Doug Hastings was the first person to clap, when Ms. Leachman unplugged the music cable. Shortly after that, Fran’s elders started to clap as well, followed by the two kids, and suddenly the hall was filled with thousands of hands clapping for Scott and Fran. Here, we can see the ripple effect, how powerful conformity is. It only takes one person to break or make a pattern, as how Asch’s experiment on conformity, it shows how easily it is to make an individual conform in a group situation.

            Compliant is a form of conformity, but differ a slight degree. Compliance occurs when one adapts his or her action, behaviours or beliefs to another’s wishes or rules. In my opinion, the scene where Mr. Barry Fife persuaded Scott Hastings into dancing with a better dancer than Fran is a good example to explain compliance from the movie. Mr. Fife, brought up Doug’s past on how he did not win the Pan Pacific during his time, and that Scott could make his father’s dream come true by winning it this time around. Cunning as he is, Mr. Fife, managed to influence Scott to dance with Liz Holt. Scott complied with Mr.Fife’s wish or requests to shake Fran off as his partner and replace her with Liz.  

            The final aspect of social influence is Obedience. Obedience is a type of conformity in which an individual follow orders without any question because they come from a legitimate authority or someone superior to us. Generally, this whole movie is about how Scott wanting to incorporate his own steps, which are non-federation steps, and how the people around him disapprove his believes about dancing.  Few characters in the movie displayed some sort of obedient conformity. For instances, Scott’s mother, Shirley Hastings, adhere to the rules so much, that she danced with Les Kendall instead of her husband during her times in the Pan Pacific’s, after being persuaded by Mr.Fife. She was so afraid to question the authority and thus, to not tarnish her reputation as a dancer, she obeyed the rules. Another character that displayed this type of social influence was by Liz Holt. After Scott danced his own “crowd-pleasing” steps during the first few minutes into the movie, Liz made an ultimatum to him saying that she will not dance with him, until he dance like he supposed to be. Again, Liz shows that she wants to obey the rules of the federation, which influenced her to select another partner who does obey the rules.

            In a nut shell, the aspects of social influence can be found in any social situations, be it dancing, answering questions in a group or even riots and protests. This movie has showcased creatively how social influence can affect dancing in a very clever way.