REVIEWED - MAD HOT BALLROOMIN 1994 a 10-week ballroom dancing programme was introduced at two New York public schools, and proved so popular that it now runs in more than 60 schools in the five boroughs, and culminates in an annual contest.
Mad Hot Ballroom charts the progress of three teams from sharply contrasting backgrounds: the children of poor Dominican Republic immigrant families in Washington Heights; the more affluent students from Tribeca in downtown Manhattan; and a mix of Italian and Asian children in the Bensonhurst area of Brooklyn.
The contestants are 10 or 11 years old, and come in all shapes and sizes. The boys are initially less confident than the girls, and much more hesitant about such close contact with the opposite sex. Some of the dancers are stiff and graceless, others naturally talented, and a few surprise even themselves as their classes progress.
Their teachers, smooth movers on the floor in their own right, are dedicated to breaking down ethnic and social barriers, and instilling self-respect, encouragement and a sense of achievement in their young charges, whom they address as "ladies and gentlemen".
As the unbridled enthusiasm of the teachers is passed on to their pupils, the movie hooks the viewer with four tiers of competition. Each school has to reduce its student dancers to a team of five couples - one each for the merengue, foxtrot, rumba, tango and swing - and the first tears of rejection are shed. There are more to flow as the elimination process continues through the quarter-finals, semi-finals and into the final.
Director Marilyn Agrelo, who refreshingly eschews voiceover, fortuitously chose one of the finalist teams, sustaining audience identification without resorting to the cruelty factor of the Big Brother and Pop Idol franchises.
The result is closer to the spelling bee documentary Spellbound as it catches the anxieties, determination and well-merited pride of its contestants. It also captures the liberating force of dance that permeated Strictly Ballroom, as it builds to a dewy-eyed, quite exhilarating finale.
