Like "Music of the Heart," this film was inspired by a true story of a mentoring program in NY city schools. This time, it's a NY dance teacher who starts a ballroom dance program for inner school kids.
It's an enjoyable film with the gorgeous Bandares in the lead but the film makers apparently weren't satisfied with the real-life teacher's accomplishments. They felt they had to embellish them out of all sense of reality.
Instead of showing Dulaine's students as energetic but definitely amateur dancers, the film has them competing in a major ballroom dancing competition. The supposed impromptu tango performed during the competition is clearly one that would have required extensive choreography and rehearsing. Are we supposed to believe that these kids, with only a few months of training, could put on an exhibition worthy of "Flashdance"? In addition, the bonus feature on the real Dulaine shows that most of his students were grade schoolers, not the teenagers depicted in the film. The sexy dancing of the film was far removed from the innocent, graceful fox trots and waltz's of real life classes.
The ending was also a bit of a let down for me. The classes were supposed to teach the kids (among other things) respect for other people. Yet they commandeer the competition's sound system and disrupt the entire event by dancing to blaring rap and hip-hop music (definitely NOT ballroom dancing by the way!). The youngsters may have learned some dance steps, but little about etiquette and consideration.
I think Mad Hot Ballroom may be a better tribute to this kind of innovative program!
It's an enjoyable film with the gorgeous Bandares in the lead but the film makers apparently weren't satisfied with the real-life teacher's accomplishments. They felt they had to embellish them out of all sense of reality.
Instead of showing Dulaine's students as energetic but definitely amateur dancers, the film has them competing in a major ballroom dancing competition. The supposed impromptu tango performed during the competition is clearly one that would have required extensive choreography and rehearsing. Are we supposed to believe that these kids, with only a few months of training, could put on an exhibition worthy of "Flashdance"? In addition, the bonus feature on the real Dulaine shows that most of his students were grade schoolers, not the teenagers depicted in the film. The sexy dancing of the film was far removed from the innocent, graceful fox trots and waltz's of real life classes.
The ending was also a bit of a let down for me. The classes were supposed to teach the kids (among other things) respect for other people. Yet they commandeer the competition's sound system and disrupt the entire event by dancing to blaring rap and hip-hop music (definitely NOT ballroom dancing by the way!). The youngsters may have learned some dance steps, but little about etiquette and consideration.
I think Mad Hot Ballroom may be a better tribute to this kind of innovative program!
Tell Your Friends