Only When I Dance chronicles the dreams of two young ballet dancers: Irlan, pegged to be a huge star, and Isabela, a good dancer whose main hurdle is that Brazil will not accept a black ballerina. Both come from poor neighbourhoods (but not total poverty) and have families that work tirelessly to help them rise beyond their origins.
This is an inspirational story and an extremely entertaining film but I do wish that filmmaker Beadie Finzi had approached the material with a bit more of a point of view. We see dancing and struggle and loving families and ballet competitions but the piece of the puzzle which would have really made this an important film is missing.
The last screening is Oct 14 at 10:45 at the Cinemateque.