While "Strictly Ballroom" is in most ways a very cinematic film, it cleverly deploys some time-tested theatrical techniques to contribute to its style. In both its ballroom and stylized dramatic sequences, Luhrmann uses theatrical lighting techniques, such as colored lights and spotlights. He also uses the theatrical technique of direct address, where characters speak directly to the audience. Lastly, he encourages a broad but expressive acting style among the cast, more typical of theater than film.
Luhrmann uses a variety of lenses, from extremely wide lenses in the faces of the film's antagonists to long lenses on the bodies of its glamorous heroes. He also chooses a few opportunities to use a steadicam during dancing sequences, bringing the audience onto the dance floor instead of observing it from afar. Luhrmann also frequently mixes camera speeds, using slow motion to provide a sense of elegance and beauty to the dance sequences.
Luhrmann approaches a topic that has few built-in fans -- ballroom dancing. In addition to the expected waltzes and Latin numbers, the film uses pop songs such as Doris Day's "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" and a cover of Cyndi Lauper's hit "Time After Time." The stylish use of these songs helps make the material more accessible to a younger, hipper audience -- an approach Luhrmann would use extensively throughout his later films "Romeo and Juliet" and "Moulin Rouge."
The most important element of the film, of course, is its story. And though Luhrmann and co-writers Andrew Bovell and Craig Pearce use stock characters and formulaic melodrama (who is surprised by the film's ending?), they use them with remarkable freshness and effectiveness. Luhrmann draws the characters broadly but with carefully chosen defining characteristics that make them more than stereotypes. The film is also expertly structured, with the romance and major conflict unfolding at just the right pace.