Resistance is futile. It's impossible not to be swept up into the uplifting world of Mad Hot Ballroom, a documentary that can be neatly summed up as the Spellbound of competitive ballroom dancing.
Premiered at this year's Slamdance Film Festival, the film follows a diverse group of fifth-graders from three equally contrasting New York schools as they rumba, meringue, tango, foxtrot and swing their way into an annual intracity competition.
Playing like gangbusters with thoroughly engaged audiences, the Paramount Classics release, which eschews fancy technical footwork in favor of straight-ahead storytelling, could find itself dancing off with some similarly spellbinding, all-ages business.
First introduced in two schools a decade ago, the American Ballroom Theater's nonprofit Dancing Classrooms provides ballroom instruction in more than 60 New York public schools.
For their purposes, director Marilyn Agrelo and Amy Sewell chose to limit their attention to P.S. 150 in trendy Tribeca, P.S. 115, located far uptown in lower-class, heavily Dominican Washington Heights and P.S. 112 in Bensonhurst, a traditionally Italian Brooklyn neighborhood that, because of a recent spike in immigration, is now half Asian.
Each school definitely has its distinct flavor and its own assortment of colorful, affable personalities. Among them are brainy, no-nonsense Cyrus and aspiring superstar Tara at P.S. 150, the shy but remarkably handsome Wilson over at P.S. 115, a kid with preternaturally breathtaking ability on the dancefloor; and at P.S. 112, friends Priscilla and Jai-Wen and buddies Ronnie and pint-sized Michael who prove to be quite astute when it comes to assessing the opposite sex.
During the 10 weeks of intense classes leading up to the big event, the film not only provides the chance to watch a lot of promising young talent strutting their stuff, but also, thanks to cinematographer Claudia Raschke-Robinson's gently probing camera, it also offers encouraging glimpse into the minds of an articulate group of average, everyday students on the cusp of adolescence.
Premiered at this year's Slamdance Film Festival, the film follows a diverse group of fifth-graders from three equally contrasting New York schools as they rumba, meringue, tango, foxtrot and swing their way into an annual intracity competition.
Playing like gangbusters with thoroughly engaged audiences, the Paramount Classics release, which eschews fancy technical footwork in favor of straight-ahead storytelling, could find itself dancing off with some similarly spellbinding, all-ages business.
First introduced in two schools a decade ago, the American Ballroom Theater's nonprofit Dancing Classrooms provides ballroom instruction in more than 60 New York public schools.
For their purposes, director Marilyn Agrelo and Amy Sewell chose to limit their attention to P.S. 150 in trendy Tribeca, P.S. 115, located far uptown in lower-class, heavily Dominican Washington Heights and P.S. 112 in Bensonhurst, a traditionally Italian Brooklyn neighborhood that, because of a recent spike in immigration, is now half Asian.
Each school definitely has its distinct flavor and its own assortment of colorful, affable personalities. Among them are brainy, no-nonsense Cyrus and aspiring superstar Tara at P.S. 150, the shy but remarkably handsome Wilson over at P.S. 115, a kid with preternaturally breathtaking ability on the dancefloor; and at P.S. 112, friends Priscilla and Jai-Wen and buddies Ronnie and pint-sized Michael who prove to be quite astute when it comes to assessing the opposite sex.
During the 10 weeks of intense classes leading up to the big event, the film not only provides the chance to watch a lot of promising young talent strutting their stuff, but also, thanks to cinematographer Claudia Raschke-Robinson's gently probing camera, it also offers encouraging glimpse into the minds of an articulate group of average, everyday students on the cusp of adolescence.
- 5/31/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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