All the Right Moves
Ten is a magical age, when kids are old enough to make articulate statements about their experiences and young enough to express their feelings without shame. In a couple of years, excitement will go the way of the bag lunch and become uncool, and acceptable poses will shrink to a few — boredom, anger, bravado. But at 10, inside a beautiful window of awakening, kids are still free to be kids.
Director Marilyn Agrelo brings us dozens of 10-year-olds in her documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, a wildly enjoyable look at the fifth-grade ballroom-dance competition held annually in New York City. By focusing on three schools — PS 150 in trendy Tribeca, PS 112 in Bensonhurst, and PS 115 in Washington Heights — and their quests for the top prize, Agrelo paints a warmhearted, hilarious picture of the city’s riches: its ethnic diversity, its fervent support of the arts and its investment in children. New York City has always been the destination of choice for people with passion and outsized personality, but a good place to raise kids? If this movie is any indication, it just might be.
Ballroom shares quite a bit with 2003’s Spellbound, the fine documentary that followed ten middle school students in their attempts to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. There is the drama of the quest, the struggle of preparation, and the long list of lessons learned, especially around defeat. But Ballroom differs in important ways. For one, the discipline is far saner; unlike spelling, there’s no arguing about whether dance is beneficial. And in dance, some of the kids who hail from poor immigrant families just might have an edge. At PS 115, which has a 97 percent poverty rate, the kids are Dominican, as is their firecracker of a teacher. In Dominican culture, dance enjoys a respected position, as opposed to being something that boys should be ashamed of doing. One look at those swiveling pelvises, and you get the sense that these kids are on home turf.
Dance, it is obvious, is good for kids. Competition inspires hard work and excellence, and the students rise to it. But what happens when the judging starts? Agrelo shows us the crush of disappointment, the initial shock when the children freeze, stunned, as they learn of their loss. Later, back in the classroom, the children try to come to terms with their defeat. “I’m indignant,” one girl says. “I felt when I went away that I still could have done a little better,” says a boy. And another: “If we did so good, why didn’t we go to the semifinals or finals?” And that, of course, is the rub. Their teacher tries to convince them that winning isn’t important, but how can that be true when the winners are so rewarded?
Where Ballroom could be stronger is in its focus on individual students. Agrelo introduces us to several children at each school, but there’s not enough time to get to know them. Still, Mad Hot Ballroom is lots of fun, with great music and a triumphant, cathartic climax. Good luck trying to sit still in your seat.
