Released April 8, High Strung snuck into theaters as a small, energetic film filled with impromptu dance battles and a budding romance. Following the cliche guidelines of a movie with a teenage girl audience, High Strung incorporates a mysteriously British bad boy, a perfectionist blonde ballerina, and a large city for them to fall in love. Besides the few lovey-dovey scenes, High Strung is based around the String and Dance Competition that so conveniently is up and coming at the art school. Bad boy (Nicholas Galitzine) and good girl (Keenan Kampa) work together along side a crew of hip hop dancers to win the competition against their traditional and proper dance enemies for a cash prize and US Visa that Bad Boy can use to stay in New York.

I had the chance to watch the film with one of the cast members and my cousin, Ian Eastwood. Eastwood dances as Rik in the hip hop crew that helps out Rubie and Johnnie (Kampa and Galitzine) to win the competition. Eastwood is widely known in the dance world for his unique choreography and intricate style of hip hop dance. As a dancer myself, I found it incredibly entertaining to watch the numerous dance numbers, especially because I was able to watch my cousin dance along the way. Although I was unable to directly interview Eastwood, I did ask him a couple questions regarding the movie’s production and his personal experience. To sum it up, Eastwood found the movie to be on the small scale, but nevertheless fun to film and to create. He loves to dance, so a movie was just a bigger stage. Eastwood recognized that the primary audience would be younger, and hopes to be apart of mature or more indie films in the future.

High Strung is currently in theaters and rated PG. The closest theaters to show the film are AMC South Barrington and AMC Loews Streets of Woodfield.