Review of the Film Shall We Dance?

by Peter Chesholm

Reviewed by Ilene Serlin
A film review published in PsycCRITIQUES -- Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, Vol. 50, no. 20, article 15 (May 19, 2005).

Ashley Montague, the anthropologist, once said to me while doing the waltz: "To dance is to love." Shall We Dance?, a lovely remake of the Japanese film (Suo, 1997) that stars Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, is about this theme. Richard Gere plays a middle-aged suburban lawyer who is living a life of "quiet desperation." Ashamed of his "desire to be happier," he gets pulled into a web of enchantment starring Jennifer Lopez as a young dance teacher and a host of lovable, wacky characters from the world of the dance studio. Seduced by the sense of freedom and imagination he finds there, he begins to dance. As both a metaphor and a real vehicle for his transformation, the dance morphs him from a deadened corporate robot into a charming, debonair, loving, expressive, playful, happy individual. His wife, the ageless beauty Susan Sarandon, thinks he is having an affair. To the detective she hires to shadow him, she explains her view of love and marriage as a partnership where both partners bear witness to each other's lives. As the relationships unfold, the film exposes many facets of love and partnership: the romantic, the committed, the fierce, and the tender. It shows that if people are truly lucky, they might even find their perfect dancing partner and partner in life in the same person.

As a psychological commentary on American society, Shall We Dance? suggests that dance is still a threat to a Puritanical culture. As an extension, imagination, sensuality, and play are also a threat to a Puritanical culture, particularly for men. Joy and magic are missing from anonymous gray cities. Shall We Dance? is a testimony to this joy and magic, reminding us how vital they are to a life lived fully, vividly, with love, connection and authenticity.

Dance as Therapy

As a dance therapist and psychologist, I have repeatedly observed the power of movement in back wards of psychiatric hospitals, in nursing homes, and with individuals and groups of all kinds. As psychology takes its place as a primary healthcare field, the power of the arts can make a valuable contribution to applications of a whole person psychology.