Common Sense Note
The documentary tracks students from three NYC public schools as they prepare for an annual citywide ballroom dancing competition. Parents need to know that some of the 11- and 12-year-old interviewees discuss the difficulties in their lives and neighborhoods, including absent parents, drug dealers, and street violence. That said, the children handle these subjects with poise and remarkable self-awareness.
Families can discuss the overwhelmingly positive effects of such structured dancing for both students and their teachers. They work hard, dedicate time and energy, and support each other, forming strong networks within their school teams and coming to understand what it means to win, and maybe more importantly, to lose. How do you cope with losing even when you try your best? What is the value of working together toward a common goal? What are the best ways to help teammates or partners to feel confident or learn new skills (whether dance steps, athletic activities, or school work)? How does losing teach you to be strong? And how might winning help you become more generous and sympathetic with other competitors?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
At first, it might seem strange to see such young people working so seriously on ballroom dancing. But within minutes, Marilyn Agrelo's documentary convinces you that this is exactly the right activity for these dedicated, enchanting fifth graders. As they work with their teachers and each other to learn the difficult steps and postures for the rumba, tango, swing, merengue, and fox trot, they also reveal much about themselves, as thoughtful, dynamic young people.
MAD HOT BALLROOM follows participants in American Ballroom Theater's (ABrT) Dancing Classrooms, more specifically, from three different public schools, in very different areas of New York City. It creates drama by establishing that the usual winner is fashionable, Tribeca's P.S. 150 (where some students, like Tara Devon Gallagher, are confident and already have show business careers in mind), and the underdog is Washington Heights' P.S. 115. The third school, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn's P.S. 112, is more middle class, and provides another dimension, complicating what might have seemed a head-to-head contest between the first two schools. As they dance, they are exposed to various cultural traditions, and begin to learn traditional gender roles (the boys are instructed, "Take care of your partner"). Describing boys as "naturally rowdy," precocious Emma Biegacki observes of her experience learning to dance, "It brought our relationships and friendships a little bit closer. Hopefully it will be helpful when I marry, which will be a very, very long time from now, I hope."
More than anything else, the movie impresses by the respect it affords its subjects. Whether the dancers perform for the camera (which some of them certainly do), explain their interest (Michael Vaccaro says, "It's like a sport that hasn't been invented yet!"), confess concerns (philosophically inclined Cyrus Hernstadt says, "Dance is like a tiny grain of sand if you consider the entire country"), or express themselves in complicated dance moves (the swing dancers are moving fast), they all give of themselves, for the enthusiastic adults they want to please (teachers like Yomaira Reynoso and Victoria Malvagno, as well as parents), and especially, each other.
Families who enjoy this movie will also like the spelling bee documentary Spellbound, the dance-based feature You Got Served, the music-based School of Rock, or the 1939 ballroom dancing biopic, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentKids are learning about gender roles as they learn classic dancing. |
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ViolenceDiscussion of violence (including one abstract mention of "kidnappers"), none displayed. |
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CommercialismSome of the kids want to become stars, so they show an understanding of celebrity. |
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