Every year, the New York Public School system sponsors a dance competition for youngsters in fifth grade; in this contest, boys and girls ages 10 and 11 learn traditional ballroom dancing styles such as the fox trot, the rumba, and the tango, and then pit their skills against other students from around the Big Apple. Mad Hot Ballroom is a documentary which offers an inside look at this event, as well as the teachers and students who take part, with a particular emphasis on three schools: P.S. 112, in a Bensonhurst neighborhood dominated by Italian and Asian families; P.S. 150, located in the wealthy and fashionable Tribeca district; and P.S. 115, a Washington Heights school where the vast majority of families live below the poverty line. Filmmaker Marilyn Agrelo follows the young dancers as they gain confidence and skill and grow into "little ladies and gentlemen," as one teacher puts it, while also examining how cultural differences impact the competition for some students and how the boys and girls feel about the opposite sex as they begin to make friends with one another. Mad Hot Ballroom received a wildly enthusiastic world premiere at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
If Mad Hot Ballroom did nothing else right, it would be worth watching just for the priceless pairings of gawky, grinning 10-year-olds, forced to make eye contact and hold hands at an age when they're still allergic to each other. Marilyn Agrelo's documentary features a United Colors of Benetton array of these children, an especially heartening sight in post-9/11 New York. But however appealing it may be watching them transform into more disciplined versions of themselves -- or, failing that, just shake a leg for awhile -- Mad Hot Ballroom falls short of its potential. Part of the problem is that Agrelo makes too few decisions about which footage to include and where to direct our attention. For starters, the movie contains 20 more minutes of interchangeable competition scenes than it should. But more crucially, it never develops a clear portrait of any of its young dancers. The boy who emerges as the star, even appearing on the movie poster, is never actually interviewed -- either as a result of his shyness, or his inability to speak English, which the use of a translator could have resolved. Meanwhile, greater screen time is doled out to less interesting kids, seemingly because they blabbered more entertaining sound bites. The most engaging moments actually come off the dance floor, when the children talk about their lives and social interactions, revealing some telling observations and character traits. If this focus on the film's shortcomings seems too particular, it's only because Mad Hot Ballroom is so close to being something truly grand. It just needed a good editor, which would have provided a more judicious sampling of key moments and characters. As is, the film must be enjoyed mostly on the surface level -- which, admittedly, is an easy enough way to enjoy it. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide