Mad Hot Ballroom

    I've mentioned before that ballroom dancing is something I love and enjoy.   

    Friends invited us this afternoon to go to the art theater in downtown Asheville to see Mad Hot Ballroom.

   

    Mad Hot Ballroom:  "Irresistible!  A kind of SPELLBOUND crossed with STRICTLY BALLROOM!"   Kenneth Turan, Los  Angeles Times

  I had not heard about this movie before today, so I had no idea that it was going to be a documentary about a 5th-grade ballroom dance program in the public schools of New York City.

   I adored this movie.  It was absolutely  the best documentary I have ever seen.  It was exciting to see how the lives of some of these children were actually changed by participating in this program.  And, what these kids were able to accomplish was amazing. The dedication of teachers and principals was inspiring.

     The audience broke into spontaneous applause at the end of the movie and most stayed through the credits which included additional footage.

    Even after seeing it,  I don't really get the movie's title, but I do highly recommend it.   Even if you have no interest in dancing, this movie will energize and inspire you. 

    From the Paramount website: 

    “MAD HOT BALLROOM is an inspiring look inside the lives of New York City school kids on a journey in the world of ballroom dancing, an unexpected arena where they discover new frontiers about attitude, movement, style  and commitment.  Told from the candid, sometimes hilarious perspective of the  boys and girls themselves, the picture chronicles their transformation from typical urban kids to “ladies and gentlemen,” as their school teams strive towards a final citywide competition.

    Providing unique insight into the incredible cultural diversity that is truly the soul of New York City, first time feature filmmakers Marilyn Agrelo and Amy Sewell profile eleven-year-olds from three public elementary schools.  Shooting in neighborhoods, classrooms and in the  fifth-graders’  homes, the filmmakers  show all the contradictions of this dynamic and  intriguing age, when growing pressure to become a “cool” teenager vies with rambunctious childlike innocence. 

    American Ballroom Theater’s (ABrT) Dancing Classrooms is the nonprofit organization that  currently provides instruction in ballroom dance at over 60 public schools in New York City.  The program was introduced in two schools ten years ago.  In ten weeks of intense, required classes, the program’s skilled and passionately inventive teachers take their students through a dance repertory:  merengue, rumba, tango, foxtrot and swing dancing.  In the process, we see boys and girls learn a whole lot more than just how to make the right steps.

    Near the end of the program, schools are given the choice to compete in what is called the Rainbow Team Matches.  Each dance team is made up of five couples -- one  for each of the five dances, plus an alternate couple who must know how to do every dance well as back-up in case of illness."

    For more information, check out Mad Hot Ballroom

 

Comments

[Fran]

Thanks for mentioning this, Betsy. I heard it reviewed fantastically on the news tonight so I'll definitely be watching for it.

[Calvin Klein]

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