See a Peruvian Prison Seized with Dance Fever as They Try to Break a Guinness World Record

Imag­ine the trail­er for this Hol­ly­wood movie:

(Shots of mus­cu­lar, heav­i­ly tat­tooed gang-bangers glow­er­ing, fight­ing, smok­ing pot, and enjoy­ing super-hot twice-week­ly con­ju­gal vis­its) 

“In a hell­ish, over­stuffed max­i­mum secu­ri­ty prison in Peru…”

(Close up of Vin Diesel or Vin Diesel-type wip­ing away a tear as he bids good­bye to a neat­ly dressed, bespec­ta­cled teenage girl)

 “One man will do what­ev­er it takes to win the respect of his daugh­ter…”

 (Cut to Vin in a col­or­ful, coor­di­nat­ed out­fit, lead­ing hun­dreds of fel­low inmates in an aer­o­bics class as they attempt to break a Guin­ness World Record)

No doubt it would be godaw­ful. That’s not to say con­vict­ed kid­nap­per Ale­jan­dro Nuñez del Arco’s sto­ry isn’t inspir­ing in the orig­i­nal.

Colonel Tomas Garay, who green­light­ed del Arco’s Full Body aer­o­bics class back in Novem­ber, is pleased by the changes in atti­tude he’s noticed at Luri­g­an­cho, “a branch of hell” where drugs, alco­hol, and vio­lence were pre­vi­ous­ly the norm. Although the sport, a car­dio­vas­cu­lar work­out com­bin­ing dance, box­ing, and Tae Bo was invent­ed by a Peru­vian man, macho inmates were stand­off­ish at first. A mere eight attend­ed del Arco’s first class. By June 14, the date he attempt­ed to best the Philip­pines’ Cebu Pris­on’s world record for the most peo­ple danc­ing behind bars, at least 1179 of his fel­low inmates were rag­ing with dance fever. Talk about trans­for­ma­tive effects…

Hope­ful­ly not com­ing soon to a the­ater near you, unless it’s as an expan­sion of the five-minute doc­u­men­tary above.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Til­da Swin­ton and Bar­ry White Lead 1500 Peo­ple in Dance-Along to Hon­or Roger Ebert

Pris­on­ers Dance to Michael Jack­son Tunes in the Philip­pines

Ayun Hal­l­i­day can zum­ba with the best of ’em. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday