Mad Hot Ballroom is One Red Hot Documentary
Mad Hot Ballroom, a delightful documentary, follows three groups of public school fifth graders from New York city’s Washington Heights, Tribeca, and Bensonhurst areas as they prepare for the citywide Ballroom dancing competition, while simultaneously providing glimpses of pre-adolescent insight to the lives of the modern-day inner city child.
That is the general plot of the entire film, and although that wouldn’t seem to be enough to sustain a full-length feature film (110 minutes), director Marilyn Agrelo brings together a beautiful non-fiction tale that keeps the pace of a well-rehearsed swing dance and carefully touches on issues beyond just teaching kids how to dance.
At age 10 and 11, it is painfully difficult to even respond to the demand of looking into a boy or girl’s eyes, let alone learning to dance with them. So it’s a raptuous pleasure to watch boys immediately divert their eyes to the ground after being told to make a little eye contact. However, the awkwardness and tension gradually melt away as the students improve and recognize that achieving the goal of teamwork is greater than wallowing in any embarrassing moment.
Mad Hot allows the viewer to soak in the story without an intrusive narrative voice-over nudging your thinking in a particular direction. Rather, the camera captures poignant moments such as when two girls talk about how the man of their future would respect them and not be a drug dealer.
Seemingly two simple qualifications, but based on the bleak backdrop shot of a deteriorating city scene, this is a sincere request that might often go unfound in their reality. Some might suggest that this is manipulation on part of the camera and location manager, until you realize that the interview is taking place on a playground in a local park.
Thankfully, Mad Hot doesn’t always focus on the plight of these kids who talk with experience beyond what they should for their age. Agrelo couples serious scenes with shots of three boys laughing it up excitedly about their dance partners shouting, “She’s so hot, hot!”, jumping and spinning all the while in the exuberant and curious way so appropriate for their age.
Excitement, learning, hard-work, fun, competition. All of these elements are balanced throughout the film with lessons and love sprinkled throughout. I know, I know. You’re thinking, boy, does this sound like another schmaltzy coming of age story where kids learn about themselves and one another along the way. It’s true.
That does happen, but it does so in a way that embraces the audience and leaves them wanting to embrace the students too, instead of inducing nausea through forced syrupy sweet scenes. The camera never lingers too long and ooze every drip of sentiment it can capture.
Instead, the pace marches on, and reveals the participants analyzing their botched performances with over the top confidence, claiming, “I didn’t think the competition was that hard.” While the next shot might show Cyrus, and I swear he’s a young Bob Dylan clone, challenge the judges scoring by quietly pondering, “I still don’t know what I did wrong.”
In modern America, where results are all that seems to matter, it’s wonderful to see a film reveal the various aspects of youth culture and what’s important to them. Fun vs. competition. Acquiring a sense of accomplishmet based purely on long-term committment vs. achieving a specific goal with a trophy attached.
Each student, and in many clear cases each instructor, finds what is most valuable to them. The rewards are so rich for audience and subjects, and the film is clearly making a plea to keep the arts alive in struggling public schools. Graciously, Mad Hot Ballroom doesn’t grandstand to make its point. It’s clear.
Viewers are drawn into the film by these engaging and delightful students from the opening shot. The audience will vocally cheer for their favorites, clapping at the young dancers successes and moan in sympathy at earnest yet failed attempts.
The whole affair instills a sense of pride in both the film’s participants and in the viewer who’s watching the next generation grow by enduring the same struggles we all share. Hmmm. Feeling proud because of a film? It’s a better reward than any ribbon or trophy, and what better reason is there to go to the movies?
Grade: A
