This ‘Ballroom’ is all Cinderellas

The more unlikely the cultural marriage, the better it plays on-screen, which is why the incongruous combination of gritty New York City public school kids and the rarefied, privileged world of ballroom dancing makes “Mad Hot Ballroom” a documentary experience to savor.

Warm, funny and very difficult to resist, this engaging film combines the charm of “Spellbound” with the kinetic energy of “Strictly Ballroom” in a way that will make you want to laugh, cry and do a little dancing yourself, maybe all at the same time.

Directed by Marilyn Agrelo, “Mad Hot Ballroom” couldn’t exist without a program, run by the American Ballroom Institute, that has brought trained teachers to what at last count was some 7,000 fourth- and fifth-graders in 68 elementary schools across the five boroughs.

More than that, the kids take part in an annual citywide competition that encompasses the program’s five dances -- fox trot, merengue, rumba, tango and swing -- and culminates in an emotional dance-off for the enormous trophy that goes to New York’s No. 1 dance team.

“Mad Hot Ballroom” cuts back and forth among three public schools in different parts of the city, each with a distinct personality. P.S. 150 in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn is a working-class school with a student body that is a mixture of Asian and Italian. P.S. 112 has kids as hip as its Tribeca location would seem to demand. And P.S. 115 services the Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, where drug use is a major concern and, the principal understands, “children come to the school with issues.” P.S. 115 also has two of the film’s most involving teachers. Rodney Lopez, the Ballroom Institute instructor, has a way of making the boys want to tuck in their shirts. And Yomaira Reynoso, a physical education teacher who collaborates with Lopez, admits she wants her school to take home the big trophy: “It’s like Susan Lucci: I want that Emmy.”

Still a few years from the mad hormones of adolescence, the film’s fourth- and fifth-graders, glimpsed on the dance floor and in candid moments outside school, seem hardly likely to embrace the physical touch and constant eye contact ballroom dancing demands. But the wonder of “Mad Hot Ballroom” is that these kids embrace dance and even get to love it. “It’s like a sport that hasn’t been invented yet,” one boy enthuses about ballroom’s so-old-it’s-new charms. Hungry for a shot at accomplishment, the young dancers get all but addicted to the chance to do something well and feel good about themselves in the process. And because they are not old enough to dissemble and hide their feelings, these kids’ earnestness, their disappointments and their joy are all easy for us to read and share.

“Mad Hot Ballroom” picks up tension in its second half, as each school sends a team to the citywide competition. Because the film cuts back and forth among numerous students, it’s easy to lose track of who is dancing for which school, but everyone is so joyous and intent, it hardly seems to matter.

What does matter is that we can literally see these young people start to feel better about themselves as their dancing skills improve. When P.S. 112 teacher Allison Sheniak says, “I see them turning into these ladies and gentlemen,” you’ll know what she’s all choked up about. Though the kids who don’t do well in the citywide contest often end up in tears, the film makes you believe they are all winners. They just don’t see it yet.

*

‘Mad Hot Ballroom’

MPAA rating: PG for some thematic elements

A Paramount Classics release. Producer-director Marilyn Agrelo. Producer-writer Amy Sewell. Director of photography Claudia Raschke-Robinson. Editor Sabine Krayenbuehl. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

At the ArcLight Cinemas, 6360 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 464-4226; Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741; and Landmark’s Westside Pavilion Cinemas, Westside Pavilion, 10800 W. Pico Blvd., (310) 281-8223