Inside The Circle

As dance documentaries go, director Marcy Garriott’s award-winning b-boy flick Inside The Circle hits all the right notes, stepping beyond a predictable break dancing exposé to reach the insightful story of south Texan teens dealing with life through b-boy culture. Focused around best friends turned rivals Omar and Josh (the former who grows to tour the world while the other battles frequent jail stints), the film follows the trajectory of two divergent crews as they compete in dancer Romeo Navarro’s integral Austin, Texas "B-Boy City” competitions. The simple struggle to make it out to these comps reveals a lot about the people in the area, like a Spanish-speaking construction worker who wishes for a more prosperous future for his breaking son, or the overall community understanding that a lot of these kids don’t really have much else going for them. In the end, it is truly fulfilling to chart the personal growth of each of the story’s many protagonists during their rise to national and international prominence.