Plot
Strictly Ballroom tells the story of an Australian ballroom dancer, Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio), and his struggle to establish his personal style of dance in his way to win the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. Scott's steps are not strictly ballroom. Scott comes from a family with a history of ballroom dancing and has been training since childhood. Scott's mother Shirley teaches ballroom dancing, and his father Doug meekly handles maintenance chores at the dance studio.
After losing a competition to a rival pair, his dancing partner Liz Holt (Gia Carides) leaves him for another dancer. With only weeks before the next Pan-Pacific competition, try-outs begin to find Scott a new dance partner but, unknown to his parents, Scott secretly begins rehearsing with frumpy outsider Fran (Tara Morice), a learner dancer at his parents' studio.
Scott is initially skeptical, but when Fran introduces pasodoble steps into their routine, Scott realises her potential. He walks her home one night and finds her Spanish gypsy family living in a tiny home next to the railway tracks, where Fran's family show him the authentic Spanish pasodoble style. As their rehearsals progress, Fran grows more attractive and self-confident.
Scott begins spending all his time rehearsing with Fran at her house, until Barry Fife (Bill Hunter), the conniving president of the Australian Dancing Federation, tells Scott he must know "the truth" about his parents, Doug and Shirley — they too were ballroom dancing champions until they lost the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix. Fife claims this was because Doug had become self-obsessed and danced his own steps. Barry convinces Scott to dance with Liz instead of Fran so he can win "for his father's sake". However, this is later revealed as a lie, part of Barry's plot to fix the competition so Scott and Liz will lose. Scott starts training with Liz, while an unhappy Fran goes back to the beginner's class.
At the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix, Scott's father finally manages to pull Scott aside and tells the real story — Doug never danced at the competition because Barry convinced Shirley the only way to win was to dance the conventional steps with their friend Les, but Shirley and Les lost the contest anyway. After hearing his father's revelation, Scott finds Fran and asks her to dance with him. Scott and Fran return to the floor and "dance from the heart", drawing cheers and tears of joy from the crowd. A furious Barry Fife interrupts the performance and disqualifies them, but they dance anyway; finally, the music resumes and the couple's spirited dancing brings down the house. In the end, it is not revealed whether Scott and Fran win or lose, as in the story, that is not an important factor. As the performance ends, Doug asks Shirley to dance. The entire audience steps onto the dance floor and all begin dancing as Fran and Scott kiss.
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