“Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!”: A Film Forged in Dance and Cultural Exchange
A poignant story of grief and connection, “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” explores the transformative power of dance through a vibrant, multicultural lens. The film, set within Tokyo’s ballroom dancing community, follows a woman navigating loss while seamlessly blending English, Spanish, and Japanese dialogue, offering a truly unique cinematic experience.
Following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, director Josef Kubota Wladyka and stars Alberto Guerra and Alejandro Edda discussed the film’s challenging yet rewarding production process at the IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox. A central element of that process involved intensive dance training for the lead actors, who entered the project with no prior ballroom experience.
“Zero,” Guerra revealed when asked about his dance background before taking on the role. “That was amazing. It’s beautiful when this profession gets you to crazy places. The fact that I found myself in 2024 learning how to tango and cha-cha-cha and mambo and rumba in Japan… that was something that was not in my book.”
The actors’ immersion in the world of competitive ballroom dancing wasn’t without its hurdles. Edda highlighted the difficulties presented by the language barrier during lessons. “We had two incredible dance teachers. Japanese, so imagine the clash,” he explained. “They were teaching us in English with Japanese and [we were] learning the steps but also trying to grasp what was said… I had a headache from processing so many things at once.”
This struggle, however, ultimately mirrored the film’s core theme: the ability of dance to bridge cultural barriers. Wladyka emphasized this point, stating, “I think it’s the universal language. It’s our bodies, it’s movement. It’s the most powerful thing I feel transcends boundaries.” The film suggests that dance can articulate emotions that words often fail to capture, offering a powerful form of nonverbal communication.
Watch the full conversation with the “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” team here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOUR_YOUTUBE_LINK_HERE
The film’s production also highlights the increasing reliance on cloud-based solutions within the film industry. Dropbox is a proud partner of IndieWire and the Sundance Film Festival, with data indicating that 68% of feature films premiering at Sundance in 2026 utilized Dropbox during production to streamline workflows and ensure secure content sharing. This demonstrates the platform’s growing importance in helping filmmakers and creative teams manage the complexities of modern film production.
