For a few fleeting moments as she dances with them, she’s found some semblance of peace, and there’s a sudden sense of hope for Mia’s relationship with her family and with herself.D.M.A., Full Member C.D.T.A., A.A.C.1., Owner/Director of Dance Expressions Inc. In this final scene, dancing means reconciliation for Mia with her mom and sister, both of whom she’s had immense conflict with. Despite the fact that she might not have nailed the audition, and that she’s still coping with the trauma from Conor, dancing is still an integral part of her life. It’s at this moment that dancing has come full circle for Mia. They don’t laugh or say a single word, they just dance together. Mia moves comfortably and freely with her family. The dance flows and feels synchronized, as if it had been choreographed for years. She and Tyler watch her mom, and then eventually join her, as the three of them dance together one final time before the move. As she’s finishing up packing her bags, she goes downstairs to find her mom dancing in the living room. This is solidified when Mia walks home, and for the first time, lets her own walls down, and begins sobbing.īy the end, Mia decides to move to Wales and start a new life. In the opposite way of how Arnold used dancing throughout the beginning of the film, it’s the absence of dancing here that draws a parallel with Mia’s traumatic state. Conor didn’t actually build up Mia’s confidence, he tore it down completely. The trauma from the situation with Conor is manifesting in a very subtle way. Arnold cleverly placed this scene here, because the song is the same that she danced to in front of Conor. Mia runs off the stage and exits the audition. The song continues, and she doesn’t dance: she’s completely frozen. The song starts to play, and she stands on the stage, visibly uncomfortable. When she’s called up, she asks the tech guy to play California Dreamin’. When Mia arrives at the audition, she watches the girls who are on before her perform an erotic dance. Arnold used dancing to reflect Mia’s mixed emotions around Conor, but after what happens, she’s left in a state of utter confusion and panic. Confused and unsettled, it’s in this scene that everything changes for Mia. After she dances, Conor initiates sex with Mia, and then asks her to keep what happened a secret. Her movements are not as focused as she dances when she's alone, and she’s reluctant to fully express herself around him, since the nature of them being alone at night is disconcerting. She tries to dance confidently, but her expression conveys a sense of fear. He tells her, “if you can’t do it in front of me here now, how are you going to do it in front of all those people?” He convinces her, and she dances in front of him to a song that he introduced to her family: Bobby Womack’s California Dreamin’. She tells Conor, “I’ve got myself an audition.” At this moment, Conor’s grooming of Mia becomes more apparent as he asks Mia to show him the dance. One night, in perhaps the most devastating scene of the film, Mia finds Conor alone watching television. Mia, (who is, again, only fifteen) is highly impressionable, and Conor, who knows he’s one of the few adults in her life who encourages her, makes an enormous impact on her confidence with her dancing. Later on, Conor encourages Mia to record her audition, and even gives her a camera to help. More than just hope, the mere thought of a life as a dancer gives Mia this completely newfound sense of confidence. She shows him the poster, and it becomes evident that Mia wants to impress him. As she walks back home, she “runs into” Conor, and strikes up a conversation with him. While people around Mia seem to think she has no hope or potential, dancing for Mia is hope. As she looks at the poster with a gleam in her eyes, it becomes clear that not only is dancing her escape, but the prospect of a future filled with dancing is something that sustains Mia in the face of adversity. On the street, Mia finds a poster that advertises “DANCERS WANTED”. In a later scene, when Mia is visited by a social worker who wants to have a chat with Mia about sending her off to a boarding school, she runs away.
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