She Paradise

She Paradise is not what one would think of as a clear-cut dance film, though it does follow a young girl’s evolution as a soca dancer in Trinidad. It’s more bittersweet than fun, as our main character learns hard truths about how the world sees her, consequently gaining a stronger sense of self. Adapted from a 2019 short by Trinidad-born Maya Cozier, a former dancer herself, and co-written by Melina Brown, She Paradise transcends the classic coming-of-age storyline, resulting in something understated and powerful.

Sparkle (Nestor) is a 17-year-old living with her out-of-work goldsmith grandpa, so strapped for cash that she picks peppers off the ground for dinner. Happening upon a group of soca dancers breaking it down in the street, she sees a moneymaking opportunity, but also a dazzling example of who she might want to be. At Sparkle’s first audition for the lucrative Carnival season, she sticks out painfully, an awkward bony child wearing “12-year-old clothes” in a room full of sexually liberated women. Through the guidance of domineering ringleader Diamond (Crichton) and softer, friendlier Mica (Rampersad), Sparkle quickly finds her footing and even becomes something of a wunderkind star of the group.

As Sparkle climbs upward in the soca scene, clashing with her grandpa over the brazen sexuality of the dance and its fashion, landing the troupe a music video with her unwitting seduction of sleazy producer Skinny (Mollineau), it becomes more doubtful whether these girls are her friends, role models, parental figures, or enemies. As she escapes her grandpa’s shadow, she steps into Diamond’s, the quasi-mother of the group who is particularly harsh on her. Whether it’s because she sees a younger version of herself in Sparkle and wants to prepare her for the worst or because she’s jealous of the mounting attention Sparkle is getting despite her inexperience is unclear. Mica is Sparkle’s closest ally, but in key moments of need even she proves unreliable and cold. Sparkle is still painfully naive – her glowing reaction to what we assume is the first male attention she has received from the predatory Skinny immediately evokes queasiness – but as the film goes on and she realizes she’s alone in this world, she begins to summon surprising conviction and power.

It’s a quiet film, focusing on Sparkle’s interior emotions, except in scenes where energetic movement and neon outfits enliven the frame. Nestor’s ever-so-subtle expressions ground us so firmly in Sparkle’s point of view that, despite her shyness, we feel exactly what it’s like to be succeeding but out of your depth, caught up in a group of older, cooler friends that at once accept and alienate you. Anyone who has been a teenage girl will empathize deeply. Never bordering on cheesy, She Paradise is a heartfelt ode to the strength it takes to learn to stand up for yourself in a painful world.

Available on VOD now.