Documentary Mad Hot Ballroom 1: Look your partner in the eye

Note:

I am a bit of a sucker for dance movies, and recently I found two documentaries of dance programmes at school. The first one I wrote about last week on the film Rhythm is it! The second one is Mad Hot Ballroom. I learnt about this from seeing the loose adaptation, Take the Lead, of the actual events with the handsome Antonio Bandares.

As can be expected, the documentary is somewhat uplifting in showing the journey from rehearsals to the finals, highlighting the impact of the programme. The film does a pretty good job showing some of that impact. BUT something about the programme bugs me: using competition to draw participation.

*This was divided into 2 pieces because it was way too long. This 1st entry is about the positive impact of the programme.

A New York city-wide dance programme and competition

Dancer Pierre Dulaine started the Dancing Classroom programme in 1994. It was so impressive that by 2005,

“…6,000 kids from over 60 schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens are required to take this 10-week course” Mad Hot Ballroom

As of 2018, around 200 schools have joined the programme (There are approximately 1,700 primary schools in New York). Over 10 weeks, students from Grade 5 learn to ballroom dance twice a week. The best 6 pairs in each school are chosen to enter a competition against all other schools, going through quarter finals to the finals. As the documentary shows, some schools attach a significant level of importance to this competition.

There seems to be a touch of class criticism in the film. One of the teams in the narrative is from a school with 95% poverty rate. The contrast is clear when the narrative moved to the defending champion, a school in a middle class suburban neighbourhood in Queens.

Why might community artists and socially-engaged artists want to watch it?

· The programme has run for nearly a quarter of a century, it is worth knowing about it.

· The film crew follows a group of children at both rehearsal and leisure time, capturing their maturity/immaturity that awe, bring a smile or even hope to the viewer (well, at least to me).

· 3 dance teachers, their methods and interactions with the students, are captured. It provides a good comparison.

· The format of a competition as a format to frame participation…I find it somewhat problematic.

Again, we will bypass the discussion of the documentary’s narrative choices and take the film at face value, giving the programme the benefit of the doubt, that most of the schools and their students are somewhat motivated to be part of the programme.

Defining characteristics of this programme

Two aspects of this programme are identified as the defining characteristics:

i. Standardized dance and aesthetics — The fundamental expressiveness and aesthetics of ballroom dance is mostly predetermined. There is a clear model that can be trained. Students work towards it. There are certainly elements of personal flare and interpretation. But it needs to be true to the tradition of the dance itself.

ii. Competition — Since the subject of the competition is relatively standardized, it can be compared. In any given performance of the same dance, age-level and other relevant conditions, the performances can be compared.

Don’t get me wrong, the documentary has made me appreciate the skill and aesthetic of ballroom dancing. Yet it is worth thinking more about its use.

What does this programme achieve?

Obviously, there are a myriad of impacts that can be achieved through such a project. (Simply saying, I believe, from personal experience and research by others, that the arts is an satisfying and essential human activity). I will discuss some that are highlighted in the documentary. I have categorized them to a certain extent, but realistic these areas are interconnected. For example, personal motivation has to do with social context.

Internal

• The children seemed driven and focused. Many of them mentioned wanting to enter, do well and even win the competition. Interviewed teachers and principal all agree that many unmotivated or uncommitted students were transformed.
• The children are also shown to have much to say about issues of life, parenting and their future.
• This is significant especially for those who have a less encouraging upbringing with appropriate guidance, resource, attention and role models.

Gender Roles

• Children have a chance to interact with others with a different gender, in a way that is mediated by an adult and through dance.
• Again, this is significant especially for those who have a less encouraging upbringing with appropriate guidance, resource, attention and role models.
• (I highly recommend the film Moonlight for a recent glimpse of growing up as a ‘black kid’ in the rough American neighbourhood).

The film captures this really well. Not only was the crew able to solicit comments from the children about love, school yard crush, relationship and parenting, but it was also accompanied by shots of the children learning to dance with each other. Holding hands and hips seemed awkward at the start, but it turned out that the true test came in being comfortable to hold each other’s gaze.

While I may have uncertainties about some of the claimed psychological and social impact, I was quite convinced that dance partners who felt comfortable with each other’s bodies and gaze have truly learnt to see each other as a person.

I wish I had a coach who taught me to hold a girl’s hands and hips and look her in the eye when I was grade 5.

Is this programme all good?

As mentioned in the forward, while this documentary has convinced me that the programme has achieved a lot, the format of a competition bugs me in some deep way. It is a big topic saved for next week.