Fear of Dancing: Intriguing doc about why some (like Stephen Fry) are chronically unable to get down with their bad selves

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B

Director Michael Allcock’s Fear of Dancing is quite possibly the first anti-dance dance movie. 

The tag line might be: Fear of Dancing will have you jumping off the dance floor and sitting in your chair!  But, even those who love to bust a move are likely to find Allcock’s film entertaining. 

The film establishes early on that Allcock doesn’t dance. Or at least, he dances no more. But there’s video evidence suggesting Allcock was once a dancing fool, footage of a carefree tyke twirling up a storm in what looks like a family house party. You can’t watch this version of a tinier Michael Allcock and not think he’s having the time of his life. 

Michael Allcock and a troupe of Kenyan dancers attempt to find common ground in Fear of Dancing.

So, what happened? When did that free-spirited love for such abandonment of movement end? That’s what Allcock wants to know. Fear of Dancing is Allcock’s journey to uncover the personal reason as to why he, and possibly others, lost the will to dance. 

It’s the right title, given that the alternative could be chorophobia, the clinical term for fear of dancing: choro as choreography and phobia, as in scared shitless. Yes, there is a clinical term to back the existence of fear of dancing, and really, isn’t acknowledging the symptom with a medically approved tag the first step towards healing? 

But it’s not a word readily recognized. None of the professional dancers and dance instructors who Allcock meets in the film correctly identify it. Even my spellcheck challenges its authenticity. 

But as Allcock discovers, full-blown cases of chorophobia exist everywhere. At any wedding, and you’ll spot a chorophobe sitting a safe distance from the dance floor rather than risk having to map out the letters Y.M.C.A. with their body parts. Chorophobics are the ones at the high school dance holding up the gymnasium wall, tapping their toes and nodding their heads to the beat of their internal self-conscious biorhythms. Severe cases will find a haven in a bathroom stall. 

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

No doubt we’ve all experienced chorophobia at one time or another. Even Bob Fosse must have sat out a dance or two. But for the folks in Michael Allcock’s Fear of Dancing, the reluctance to get on the dance floor can have profound social and even romantic repercussions. 

There are moments in the film where Fear of Dancing observes wounds that run deeper than the affliction might imply; tearful moments triggered by memories of an awkward youth or how an inability to adhere to perceived cultural expectations can be painfully segregating. 

One scene that bears witness to Allcock’s discomfort sees a young woman using grand animated gestures trying to coax him onto the dance floor. She’s relentless in trying to sell him on the satisfying release of endorphins that comes from letting loose. Despite Allcock’s polite and firm refusals, the woman persists until he is forced to abruptly dismiss her. It is a raw and uneasy moment for both parties, including the viewer. 

For the most part, Fear of Dancing remains a light, often amusing look at a non-dancer living in a dancer’s world. And Allcock is a likeable guide. He’s as at ease talking to dance studio instructors as he is with engineers and scientists discussing the molecular structures within a robotic dance simulator. (I’m not smart enough to know if robotic dance simulators have molecular structures, but Allcock is, and that’s my point).  

But unlike many filmmakers who put themselves on camera (I’m looking at you, Mr. Supersize Me). Allcock is not an interfering presence; he is with his guests without overshadowing them. For the most part, this is a good thing, but it is also one of the film’s weaknesses. Allcock’s on-camera presence is open, occasionally vulnerable but confident. And the moments when he’s on-screen are consistently the most interesting. 

The film surprises in just how far Allcock takes us in his journey, stopping in Africa, England, France, Switzerland, and other places where dancers and non-dancers are at odds. 

One of Fear of Dancing’s crowning moments is the inclusion of British satirist Stephen Fry. Fry reads from a scathing essay as to why he hates dancing; not just fear, but a deep-rooted contempt for unnatural bending and stretching and carefree tossing of limbs. 

Bucking against the notion that dance is an internal burst of expression that some cannot correctly harness, Fry's assertation is more definitive; it’s not that some people can’t dance, but that no one should dance. It’s tempting to send Fry a link to The Nicholas Brothers’ routine in the movie Stormy Weather (1943), but like Allcock confronted by the woman pestering him to get on the dance floor, I doubt Fry is open to changing his mind.  

Fear of Dancing is directed by Michael Allcock and features Stephen Fry. Fear of Dancing streams on CBC GEM starting Friday November 27, 2020.