Educational Media Reviews Online

Shake the Dust is less of a dance film than a social issues documentary showing how break-dancing is used as a tool for self-expression and self-empowerment in poor communities throughout the world. While the dancers tell compelling stories and the dancing is awe inspiring, the film just scratches the surface on the significance of break-dancing on the global stage.

The dancers profiled are from Cambodia, Colombia, Uganda, and Yemen. Especially in the examples presented from Uganda and Cambodia, break-dancing is a means for education and/or an alternative to criminality. The dancers discuss their homelessness, drug abuse, outsider status, and how they came to learn break-dancing. Often a mentor in the community has served as the agent for teaching dance by establishing a school, education program, or even just by creating a social network of break-dancers.

All of these communities acknowledge that they are transforming an American dance form for their own self-empowerment. This process is evident in the all too brief footage from Yemen, where a traditional circular knife dance evolves to incorporate a break-dancing cipher. The cipher, the circular form of break-dancing, is also combined with a tradition of drumming in Uganda. This dance footage is, again, far too brief, and long takes of dancing are rare in this film. Historical context is also not included, though there is a fascinating historical explanation for hip hop culture’s roots in Colombia on the DVD extras. Sadly, little of this information is included in the film itself.

Shake the Dust is recommended with reservation because it needs more dancing to make it a standout dance film. Suitable for general adult audiences.