Mad Hot Ballroom - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Mad Hot Ballroom': Who knew dance lessons could be uplifting?

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Consider the value of the four R's of education — reading, writing, 'rithmetic ... and rumba.

New York City did exactly that when it made mandatory a growing program to teach ballroom dance in its public schools. And first-time feature filmmaker Marilyn Agrelo did with her witty, wise and emotionally involving documentary on those classes and the culminating competition, Mad Hot Ballroom.

Paramount Classics

'Mad Hot Ballroom'

A-

The verdict: A savvy, emotionally involving documentary on the transforming power of dance.

Director: Marilyn Agrelo
Starring: Rodney Lopez, Victoria Malvagno, Yomaira Reynoso, Allison Sheniak, Alex Tchassov
Run time: 105 minutes
Release date: May 13, 2005
Rating: PG for some thematic elements.
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Along the way to the high-stepping showdown, fifth-graders from three ethnically and economically diverse schools are seen growing in self-esteem, finding a temporary purpose in life and, incidentally, learning to do a mean tango.

Agrelo arbitrarily but cannily focused her camera on schools in underprivileged Washington Heights, transitioning Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and relatively affluent TriBeCa. She turns ballroom dance into a team sport, which allows the audience to root for the group it identifies with, but she also ignores opportunities to explore the back stories of pint-sized characters we only fleetingly get to know.

We hear and see just enough to leave us curious about charismatic Wilson, who speaks no English. To wonder about dedicated Tara, mature beyond her years and a clearly accomplished dancer.

The classes and the contest are the spine of Mad Hot Ballroom, but Agrelo and screenwriter Amy Sewell widen their lens to include scenes of candid philosophy from the kids, on the brink of puberty and trying to figure out their attitudes toward the opposite sex. Also a welcome tangent are the occasional scenes of New York street life, which flavor our understanding of the three neighborhoods.

It is hard not to think of Oscar-nominated Spellbound, the national spelling bee film, particularly in the latter half of the film as Mad Hot Ballroom moves on to the city-wide dance finals at the World Financial Center.

At the public preview screening I attended, the audience broke into spontaneous applause at the outcome of the competition. Or maybe they were clapping for a human-scale film with genuine uplift and for the old-fashioned civilizing influence of ballroom dance.