MAD HOT BALLROOM!
Hello, movies blog, sorry for neglecting you. But I must admit, I've been neglecting movies in general until recently.
We saw Mad Hot Ballroom last night, a documentary about a ballroom dancing program/competition that goes on in the New York City public schools. It's full of lots of darling inner-city children shaking their hips.
The dancing is beautiful and amazing. Dancing is a lost art in our world, and it's a shame. The benefits of this program are many and great . . . manners, knowledge of culture, new opportunities, and heck, just being able to back your thing up. No but seriously, it's important to know how to shake your bon-bon.
So the dancing is really incredible. These kids are GOOD. And the children are funny and adorable. They're pretty good at stealing your heart right away. It's full of funny and beautiful moments that will make you smile and laugh and feel good.
But unfortunately, that's about it. While it was an enjoyable film, as a documentary, it lacked major substance. You didn't learn a whole lot about the kids themselves, their families, or their backgrounds. While it was fun to watch the dancing, that's about all it was, 1 hour and 45 minutes of watching them dance. And this is all good and fine, but you can only carry a movie for so long on children making cute and awkward and funny faces while dancing.
You'll enjoy it, but it's just really not all that impressive in the end. People have been comparing it to Spellbound, but this is nowhere near the documentary that Spellbound is. Watching dancing is more fun than watching spelling, but you need more than just that.
posted by nateshorb at 6/25/2005 11:22:00 AM
2 Comments:
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We went to see Mad HOT Ballroom. The movie was showing at the Cumberland Theatre in downtown Toronto, and is run by Alliance Atlantis, so there were other more "artsy" movies being shown. Well, it was worth the drive and wait!
The audience was primarily made up of people in their 50's to 70's, at least during the time we went. There were quite a number of "tourists" as well, probably from the local Hyatt and Four Seasons Hotels in the area.
What we loved about the movie was that it captured the "innocence" of children and the passion of their "teachers". It was interesting to see from a child's eye their determination to want to make the finals ... the disappointment of those who didn't and the exhiliration of those that did.
What we also loved was the diversity of cultures represented by the children ... hispanic, black, white, vietnamese, chinese, etc. ... and how they were partnered. In one scene, it showed two children who may have been of Muslim faith, who seemed to indicate that it was against their religion to dance. However, instead of trying to make a "moral" statement, the producers captured a moment where the child exclaimed that he enjoyed being the "DJ" and taking care of the music! In one scene, it even showed him trying to correct one of the other couples!
Some of the invited judges in the Grand finals included Charlotte Jorgensen as well as Broadway star, Ann Reinking. It was lovely to see them and other well-known judges in the Dance world, being captivated by the various dance teams.
What could have been done differently? Possibly showing more the "day-to-day" living side of some of the children. A number of the children talked about "drugs". Although we're not familiar with the various urban neighbourhoods of New York City, if it's like many "urban" centres in other cities, it would have been interesting to contrast the "urban decay", and how something like the experience of dance can be "life-changing" for the children. It would also have been interesting to interview some of the children who took part in the first program (think it was in 1994) ... in keeping with the film's
positive perspective, maybe a "success" story.
There was a British Show a number of years ago that traced children through the decades (can't remember the title) ... their innocence in primary school, to their teenage years, and finally onto adulthood. It would be fascinating to revisit these wonderful children to see where they may end up a decade from now.
www.dancescape.com
dance is ... PASSION
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