Mad Hot Ballroom

2005 • 105 minutes

About this movie

Eleven-year-old New York City public school kids journey into the world of ballroom dancing and reveal pieces of themselves and their world along the way. Told from their candid, sometimes hilarious perspectives, these kids are transformed, from reluctant participants to determined competitors, from typical urban kids to "ladies and gentlemen," on their way to try to compete in the final citywide competition. Providing unique insight into the incredible cultural diversity that is New York City, this film profiles several kids from three schools (out of 60) at this dynamic age, when becoming that "cool" teenager vies for position with familiar innocence, while they learn the merengue, rumba, tango, the foxtrot and swing.

Ratings and reviews

Audio and video completely desynchronized. I Couldn't watch more than 5 minutes because of that. Completely waste of time and money. Don't rent it until it's fixed!

I believe this is one of the best movies about dance competition. You will learn while watching a lovable movie. It is a great family and educational movie. The directorial decisions gave the movie more meaning.

It was interesting to here how they think about things, and how different it was to an adult's point of view. It was a very kid-friendly movie. Overall it was a very good movie