Ballroom Dances to a Hopeful Tomorrow

Director Marilyn Agrelo’s “Mad Hot Ballroom” is the best documentary bar-none since 1994’s seminal basketball saga “Hoop Dreams.” It is an astonishing, life-affirming journey into New York’s inner cities, chronicling a burgeoning love affair between fifth grade public elementary school students and the world of ballroom dancing. Like “Hoop Dreams,” “Mad Hot Ballroom” chronicles youth as it evolves, and if the time period this time out is only a few short months (not the astonishing five years of director Steve James’ classic doc), the journey is still an amazing one, full of more laughs, gasps, tears and truths than any fictional feature put out this year.

The American Ballroom Theater’s (ABrT) Dancing Classrooms is a nonprofit organization currently providing instruction in ballroom dance in public schools all over New York City. During the period depicted here, the number of school’s participating in this program was over 60. Starting school year 2005-2006 that number will jump up into the seventies. An amazing statistic, especially when you consider that this program of mandatory fifth grade instruction in ballroom dancing was introduced only ten years a go in just two public schools. Since then, Dancing Classrooms hasn’t just blossomed; it’s exploded, schools rushing to join the Merengue cavalcade with the fevered passion of a Fox Trot.

After watching this it’s easy to see why. Told primarily through the eyes of the students at the center of things, this is a candid, exceedingly intimate and often hilarious journey observing the transformation of typical urban kids into prim and proper ladies and gentlemen. And why wouldn’t it be? This is a new world for the youngsters and their three classes; P.S. 150 in the trendy Tribeca neighborhood, P.S. 115 in Washington Heights and overwhelmingly Hispanic (and with 97 percent of their kids living below the poverty line) and P.S. 112 in the traditionally Italian-heavy neighborhood of Bensonhurst; these kids right in the middle of a growing period where it’s hard enough to look the opposite sex in the eye let alone dance with them cheek to cheek.

The program itself is pretty simple. During one quarter of the year, each classroom spends an hour of their day taking instruction in ballroom dancing from one of ABrT’s licensed professionals in place of regular P.E. During this period they learn five main dances; the Fox Trot, Merengue, Rumba, Tango and Swing. As the quarter progresses, each instructor, along with the class’ teacher, picks six couples to participate in a city-wide dance competition. Once picked, for six weeks these duos (five competitors and one alternate) learn to perfect each dance as much as their youthful bodies will allow, putting their moves to the test in contests against schools from all across New York.

So much here stands out I’m not even sure where to begin. The glory of “Mad Hot Ballroom,” much like “Spellbound” before it (but even more so here), is how these children just seem to blossom and grow as they learn more and more about this new and extremely (at least to an 11-year-old) peculiar subject. What’s also astonishing is how smart, vivacious and completely open so many of them are as to the world around them. These kids talk about life with an honesty and an assertiveness the majority of us adults unfortunately loose somewhere along our journeys, touching on subjects as far-reaching as sex, gender, race, religion, art, entertainment, marriage, politics and good-old All-American poop jokes. They’re incredible, and goodness knows if I didn’t learn just as much about myself as I did about them by the time the movie came to an end.

All wonderful and entertaining, yes, but not exactly earth shattering and by itself not near enough to make the picture 2005’s best and brightest entertainment. So here is where “Mad Hot Ballroom” becomes transcendent: like “Hoop Dreams,” lives completely change because of an adventurous pursuit. The kids chosen to compete find they're embracing something far beyond themselves, driven to accomplish more than their limited understanding of the world ever led them to believe was possible. Case-in-point, when we first meet Kelvin of P.S. 115 we see a quiet, insecure kid whose life trying to navigate the projects might be leading him into danger. By the end, Kelvin is still quiet, but now he’s confident, smiling, leading the others in his classroom with profound example. Through the course of 100 minutes you see this child bloom, a spark inside of him come alive that just wasn’t there before. Like his principal proudly states, whether it be in dance or in something else, this kid is going to make something of himself and his life, and ABrT’s program is directly responsible for helping make it happen.

Of course, there is no way to know at this time if that statement is true. But by the end of the documentary you can’t help believe that it is going to be, he and so many of the other fifth graders, whether or not they actually won the competition, literally becoming the ladies and gentlemen their dance instructors keep calling them. The movie makes my heart leap and my spirits soar. At my core, I unfortunately tend to be a cynic, looking at the current political, social and artistic state of the world and cringing in disappointment. Thanks to this program, these kids aren’t doing that. Instead, they’re learning key tools helping them deal with the lives they’re going to lead as adults. “Mad Hot Ballroom” gives me hope for a brighter tomorrow, a belief these children are going to grow up and help lead us to a brighter future. What better recommendation is there than that?

Film Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)