film

Mad Hot Ballroom

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Producer(s)	Marilyn Agrelo, Amy Sewell
Director(s)	Marilyn Agrelo
Release Date	1999
Work In Progress	n
Runtime	105 min
Youth Media	n

Film Description

The sight of a roomful of modern New York City fifth graders determinedly going through the paces of traditional ballroom dancing — the fox trot, the rumba, even the sultry tango — has a certain charming incongruity. The dances, with their old-style Astaire-and-Rogers urbanity, fit oddly with the unlithe bodies and dressed-down urban attitudes of today’s American schoolchildren. Nonetheless, thanks to a program organized by the American Ballroom Theater, students in 60 New York elementary schools not only learn the steps and postures but also display them in an annual tournament. Their competition is the subject of a slight, charming documentary directed by Marilyn Agrelo. It is the latest crowd-pleasing documentary to use a narrative device long relied upon by fictional sports movies: the road to the big game. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times

Official Site	http://www.paramountclassics.com/madhot/
Official Contact	No contact information provided
Administrative Contact	Mediarights_Admin
Last Updated On:	May 22, 2012