LET'S DANCE [Main Title]

Log in to create clips, download free screeners and save clips/films in Collections. Click here to find out more.


  • Title: LET'S DANCE [Main Title]
  • Film Number: UNT 856
  • Other titles: UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Dance is used as therapy for Muslim children living in the tiny enclave of Stari Vitez in Central Bosnia. Bosnia's champion ballroom dancers donate their time in a makeshift studio.
  • Description: A girl collects a friend on her way to the dance class. Stari Vitez is covered in thick snow. The girls join other children waiting for the class to begin, seated in a crowded entrance hall. Sedjad Mašić, one of the dance teachers explains that when the town was besieged there was nothing for people to do to keep their minds of war. He and his wife, Fatima Mašić, set up the classes as a recreational activity for local children. The children change into trainers and enter the hall. Four boys stand in a line, opposite four girls. The instructor explains what he would like to see from them and leads them through the dance moves. Footage of the children practising ballroom dancing. More than half of the children in the town now attend these classes, lead by members of Bosnia’s ballroom dancing team. Stari Vitez is a small Muslim enclave in Central Bosnia, cut off by Bosnian Croat forces for over a year. Interview with Fatima Mašić, one of the dance teachers. She describes the children when they first started the classes as restless and afraid of the slightness noise. These children had been living in basements for over a year. A child walks down the road, passing by houses destroyed by shelling. Interview with a group of children in the sports hall. One boy explains that they could not play sport but now they can dance and spend time together. An older boy, in his mid-teens, says that dance ‘is a certain feeling, it is simply beautiful, I enjoy it’. The dance classes are also important for the parents of these children. Interview with Selma Skopljak, a dancer’s parent, who describes her family seeing a man blown to pieces when a fuel truck exploded and its effect on her daughter, who sits beside her. She says that since her daughter has started dancing she has become more relaxed, more free. Footage of her daughter dancing. Her daughter and her partner won the National Dancing competition last year. Interview with Sinka Bošnjaković, Šemsa’s mother, who sits on the couch with her two daughters and their grandmother. The family is still recovering from the loss of Šemsa’s father, who died during the war. Sinka describes how much Šemsa loves to dance. The room in which the classes take place is small and heated only by a small log stove. The older boy says that they used to have classes in a dance hall but it was almost completely destroyed and they had to dance carefully, dodging holes in the floor. The school has since been helped by the International Rescue Committee that has provided equipment and tracksuits. Sedjad Mašić says that although they work for free, they realise that they are helping children to overcome the trauma of war. Footage of Sedjad dancing with a girl, who grins up at him.
  • Alternative Title: UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: English (Tape Code A)
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: UNT 856
  • Sound: Bosnian (Tape Code B)
  • Access Conditions:
  • Featured Period: 1990-2000
  • Production Date: 1995-12 1996-02-09
  • Production Country: UN
  • Production Details: Butler, Kate (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: Bosnia-Herzegovina & Zenica (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: English (Tape Code A) Sound format: Bosnian (Tape Code B) Soundtrack language: Croatian (Tape Code C) Title language: Serbian (Tape D)
  • Technical Details: Format: Beta-SP Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Running time: 5 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    UNT 856

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    UNT 857 (UNTV PROGRAMME NO 156 [Main Title]) UNT 856 X (LET'S DANCE (UNEDITED RUSHES) [Allocated Title])
Register