Only the stoniest hearts could resist the spectacle of kids trying to master the intricacies of certain competitive tasks. In “Spellbound,” it was a national spelling bee; in “Mad Hot Ballroom,” it’s the social graces and complicated footwork of ballroom dancing.
| Delightful: Documentary about fifth-graders in New York City preparing for a citywide ballroom dancing competition. Utterly winning, in the “Spellbound” tradition.
Rated: PG rating is for language. Now showing: Uptown. |
The difference between the skills is interesting. “Spellbound” was a marvelous, incredibly suspenseful film, but one could legitimately worry about the obsessive cramming and individual sacrifices a kid would have to make to compete with the best spellers.
Dancing, on the other hand, is a communal activity that requires physical movement and communication skills. “Mad Hot Ballroom” has fewer neuroses and more sheer fun.
It does, however, have a competition – director Marilyn Angelo and producer Amy Sewell are not documentary dummies. They follow three groups of fifth-graders as they prepare for New York City’s annual citywide dance competition.
One group is from a school in Tribeca, a downtown area whose savvy kids come from upscale families. Another is from uptown Washington Heights, a primarily Dominican neighborhood with a high poverty rate. The other school is in Brooklyn, where the mix of Italian and Asian kids reflects the flux in urban settling.
It actually takes a while to tell the schools apart, but all of them have quirky, determined children whose personalities quickly establish themselves. We meet some memorable teachers and dance instructors, too, especially Yomaira Reynoso, who cajoles her Washington Heights kids with a variety of forceful Spanish expressions.
The rehearsals are funny enough to qualify for a movie on their own. Remembering the steps is difficult in itself, but if you think about how hard it was to be 11 years old and look a member of the opposite sex in the eyes (let alone for the duration of an entire song, turning around the dance floor), you’ll appreciate the efforts of these kids.
You get invested enough in them to feel the elation and disappointment of the qualifying rounds and the finals. And it’s great and slightly surreal to see children of the hip-hop generation gliding around to something as ancient as the fox trot.
Not quite as original or riveting as “Spellbound,” “Mad Hot Ballroom” is nevertheless a delight. And you don’t have to know how to spell anything.
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