Mad Hot Ballroom

New York school kids show their moves.

Herald rating: * * *

Billed as the successor to the thrilling spelling-bee documentary Spellbound, this American film doesn't bat in the same league. Its cast of characters is much more diffuse and the occasionally indulgent editing gives it a disjointed feel. But first-time film-maker Agrelo has crafted a sweet, smart and joyful little film full of heartwarming moments.

The focus is a ballroom dancing competition, the culmination of a programme of classes given by a non-profit organisation to 11-year-olds in 60 of the city's public schools. The kids grapple with the complexities of merengue, rumba, foxtrot, tango and swing, entering local contests that culminate in a citywide championship.

The film follows teams from three strikingly different neighbourhoods: arty upscale Tribeca; Washington Heights in uptown Manhattan where immigrants mostly from the Dominican Republic sweat on the poverty line; and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, a one-time Italian enclave that is now half-Asian.

The contrast between the groups is telling, though it's never belaboured: it's a Tribeca kid who knows that the merengue originated in the Dominican Republic and when one of his classmates, astonished that his team didn't win, cross-examines the judges on the scoring system before intoning that "I just don't understand how this happened" we see a corporate lawyer in embryo.

Across town, meanwhile, the teachers' devotion to their charges, which seems indistinguishable from mother-love, is intensely moving: they see the dancing as a key to unlock the kids' jaded passions.

The idea of dancing as a civilising influence is an underlying thread from the moment one of the teachers asks his boys to tuck their shirts in.

It's a subtext that is only occasionally expressed directly which makes the film slightly frustrating. Time and again we get hints about lives transformed but never see any of it because the film-makers move outside the dance studios only to get snatches of interview. Still, it bubbles through every scene and it's what lifts the movie from the routine into something special.

DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR: Marilyn Agrelo
RUNNING TIME: 105 mins
RATING: PG
SCREENING: Academy and regional cinemas