In "Take the Lead," the teacher becomes an agent of change to his students through ballroom dancing. Based on the real life experiences of Pierre Dulaine, a ballroom dancer who started the dance instruction craze in New York City shown in the hit documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom" (that also inspired the TV show "Dancing with the Stars" where a Fil-Am girl won), it now stars Latino actor Antonio Banderas as Mr. Dulaine. In real life, he taught elementary school pupils. To make it more cinematic, he now teaches problematic high school students who are in detention class. He sees one student, Rock (Rob Brown), destroying a car that belongs to the principal of Rock’s high school, Ms. Augustine James (Alfre Woodard). Rock is actually a sensitive boy who just needs a lot of understanding.

Dulaine sells the idea to Ms. James of channeling the energy of their problem teens by teaching them the art of ballroom dancing. And since Ms. James cannot find a teacher who is willing to handle detention students, she agrees to his proposal. As maybe expected, the unruly kids in detention class hate his old-fashioned kind of music and even ridicule him, until Dulaine asks one of his expert dance students to come and they demonstrate a provocatively sexy tango number to the class. He succeeds in getting their attention and what they do later is to fuse his dance steps with their own hip-hop moves, thereby creating a dance style of their own.

As they come around and become better, it is only to be expected that they also institute some improvements in their own personal lives, learning discipline and respect for others. This is where the interesting subplots, common in this kind of film genre, come in. Rob, who goes along with the dancing as he knows Dulaine can squeal on him about the act of vandalism he did on the principal’s car, gets friendly with his erstwhile enemy, Lahrette (Yaya DaCosta), who has difficulty following orders.

Lahrette is also very choosy about who she dances with but, later, there’s even a hint of romance between her and Rob. The simple looking Jane Caitlin (Lauren Collins) gains some self-confidence and finds her partner in Monster (Brandon Andrews). Ramos (played by Fil-Am actor Dante Basco who starred in "The Debut") is in turn so arrogant he thinks he’s the best. He wants Sasha (Jenna Dewan) to be his partner but Eddie (Marcus Paulk) also wants Sasha for himself.

Dulaine then challenges the students to compete in the city-wide ballroom contest and, this time, " and in his stint in Broadway, but it turns out he can also be a mean dancer. His younger co-actors are all very capable in dancing, too.

The film is the directorial debut of Liz Friedlander, who started with music videos, so expect here the usual fast edits and fancy camera work and visuals often seen on MTV. The movie also shows us how multi-cultural the population is in New York City. It is not an artistic masterpiece but it manages to be entertaining feel-good flick that also makes you want to make you dance.

We just wish the big dance competition at the climax was filmed with more energy, like Baz Luhrmann’s "Sctricly Ballroom" that features an excellent performance from Paul Mercurio. (Wonder what ever happened to him after he tried getting into Hollywood and failed?) The ending may also seem too sudden for some viewers as some subplots remain unresolved. But come to think of it, that’s the way life is really is: Some things are really not resolved at all. The significant thing is that the problem kids are now aware that they have other options in life. It’s up to them now to make the choice after Mr. Dulaine has shown them the way.