---

Ever wondered how Bermuda’s young dancers measure up against their American peers? It’s all here in this compact 45-minute documentary.

Dance Bermuda: Three Extraordinary Weeks gives a potted account of a dance programme that took place here last September for local and American kids.

Directors Jonathan Rogers and Wendy Davis Johnson do a good job of keeping things nice and simple with a structured, chronological telling of what the experience meant for everyone.

We’re introduced to a few of the dancers and follow them on the journey from auditions to being accepted on to the programme, and what they learnt from it — mostly that they have to do better if they want to make it in the real world.

What’s great about Dance Bermuda is the kids’ enthusiasm. They all want to be the best they can be, which just lends more kudos to the National Dance Foundation for putting the programme on in the first place.

We get comments from local dance teachers, comments from the organizers and American instructors and a nice little to-camera piece from board member Catherine Zeta Jones.

She tells us: “Living here in Bermuda and seeing the talent that is here and incorporating that with the talent from New York and Toronto… I think talent feeds talent, it was just a wonderful thing for me to do.”

Dance people here know kids have to be exposed to more than what Bermuda has to offer if they are going to grow.

The kids know it too. Some are disappointed when they’re split into groups and put at a lower level than they think they deserve; others, it seems, have never been paired up and feel petrified being close to boys. One instructor tells a boy: “You are too sloppy. You’re talented but you are just sloppy.”

Like Simon Callow on American Idol, there’s no point in false praise.

Ultimately it helps the dancers realize whether or not they’re living an unrealistic dream.

Every parent with a child in this will absolutely love it, as will all the other dancers on the island.

It might be a hard sell for everyone else, but it’s an insightful piece into a period that meant a lot to the people involved.[[In-content Ad]]

---