Amazon.com The sensuous thrill of ballroom dancing collides with the hip-hop world of self-expression in Take the Lead. Antonio Banderas (Desperado, The Mask of Zorro) stars as Pierre Dulaine, a dance teacher who--perhaps to fill a void in his own life--decides to teach the foxtrot and the tango to a group of inner-city high school students who've been put in detention. The kids sullenly resist this intruder with his silly box-steps, but gradually succumb to the allure of passion channeled into physical grace. It's a lot of hooey, of course--the stories about the individual kids are shallow melodrama--but a movie like this isn't so much about plot as about dancing, and the dancing bewitches. The main problem of Take the Lead is that there isn't enough dancing; at least half of the personal struggle of the students could be jettisoned and happily be replaced by fifteen minutes of a sleek and sexy rhumba. Still, Banderas has a warm, ingratiating presence and can spout platitudes about dance with conviction; Alfre Woodard (Crooklyn, Desperate Housewives) has her usual charismatic authority as the school's hard-nosed principal; and the dance competition at the movie's end gives the movie the lift it's wanted for the previous hour and a half. --Bret Fetzer

Description Inspired by a true story, Antonio Banderas stars as internationally acclaimed ballroom dancer Pierre Dulane in the energetic and moving film Take The Lead. When Dulane volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system, his background first clashes with his students' tastes...but together they create a completely new style of dance.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Music Clips