Only When I Dance (Completed 2009)

About the Film

‘Only When I Dance’ is a classic narrative documentary following two young teenagers, Isabella and Irlan as they strive to realise an extraordinary dream.

One girl, one boy. Both black and poor and living in a violent and depressed community on the outskirts of Rio. Irlan and Isabella both want to dance - to dance ballet and their ambition is to leave Brazil to join one of the great companies in the North.

On our very first shoot, the pair won the Brazilian national championships and qualified to compete in Lausanne and New York the following spring where the major talent scouts would be waiting to select their new young apprentices. We would be with them and their families the whole way, on what would prove to be a life-changing year.

‘Only When I Dance’ is ‘Billy Elliot’ meets ‘Mad Hot Ballroom’, set in the favelas of Rio. A story with real jeopardy at its heart, where the gulf between success and failure would be everything, a story illustrating both the privilege and price of great talent.