Mad Hot Ballroom
Directed by: Marilyn Agrelo
Starring: The kids and teachers of P.S. 150, P.S. 115, and P.S. 112 in New York.
Rated: PG for some thematic elements.
Parental Notes: This is a good kids film, provided the kids in question are interested in dancing, New York, or some other element of the film. There’s no action or suspense and nothing objectionable. Indeed, watching how these kids take to ballroom dancing might be an inspiration for kids in the audience to try it.
It’s hard to imagine hundreds of New York public school fifth graders learning to ballroom dance every year, but that’s just what has happened since American Ballroom Theater started its Dancing Classrooms program a decade ago. Now, skilled teachers spend ten weeks teaching fifth graders the meringue, the rumba, the tango, the foxtrot, and swing dancing. “Mad Hot Ballroom” follows three schools on their journey from the first weeks of the program through the state-wide Rainbow Team Matches, where six couples from each school compete against each other in a series of meets.
“Mad Hot Ballroom” blends footage from the classrooms and interviews with the faculty and students to give us a portrait of the effects that learning ballroom dancing has on kids. The kids range from the upper-class and sophisticated to the lower-class and street-wise, and some of them resist dancing as passionately as their classmates take to it. It’s interesting to watch the kids change as they work to learn the strict forms and etiquette of the ballroom.
We also get to see them outside the classroom, talking about everything from dance to the right kind of person to marry (one girl wisely comments that she wants a boy who doesn’t sell drugs). These interviews are thoroughly engaging, and they show us how mature kids can be even if they’re only 11 or 12. Some of their comments are hilarious (particularly when some of the boys are talking about the girls in the class) and others are surprisingly touching.
The film’s one flaw is that it spreads its focus a bit thin. We get to meet nearly all the kids and teachers in all three schools’ ballroom classes, but that means that we don’t get to know any of them all that well. Many of these people are very engaging, especially in their outside-the-classroom interviews, but we don’t get to engage with them in much depth. It’s understandable, given that nearly everyone involved is so intriguing in their own ways that it would be almost impossible to pick a mere handful on which to concentrate, but still a bit disappointing.
That said, this is a delightful look at the way in which arts education can make a huge difference in the lives of students. The teachers and administrators talk about problem students who turn around their behavior after learning to dance, and it’s easy to see the difference in the kids’ self-confidence from the beginning of the class through to the end. This would have made a wonderful mini-series, but as a film it makes up for lost depth through sheer exuberance.