High Strung

A film set in New York that brings dance and music together. Ruby has come from a small town and studies at a prestigious arts school on a scholarship. Johnnie has come from England and lives by playing violin in the subway; his visa is a problem and he cannot work legally. They meet in the subway. Then a competition comes up: the winner gets a scholarship. Under the rules an entry requires a dance and a music group working together. So ballet and street dance, classical violin and hip hop, come together on the same stage. That joining is the main material; the narrative is built around it and the performance sections are the film's real purpose. There are real dancers in the cast. Keenan Kampa, who plays Ruby, is a professional ballerina, known as the first American woman to dance with the Mariinsky Ballet in Russia. Michael Damian directed. A suitable choice for anyone who likes dance films and youth stories built on competition. On the narrative side it follows the genre's known template; its real strength is in the choreography and the music.