MAD HOT BALLROOM (Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Classics, 2005)

Directed by Marilyn Agrelo; written by Amy Sewell; 105 minutes; documentary; MPAA rating: PG ("for some thematic elements," but appropriate for ages 9 and up, if you ask me).

In 1994 the New York City public school system introduced a ballroom dance program for fifth graders. Within ten years it expanded from two schools to 60, with 6,000 students required to take part in the ten-week course. School administrators can then choose whether or not to participate in an annual citywide competition, where only one school will be named the winner. Mad Hot Ballroom follows students from three of these schools, in the neighborhoods of Bensonhurst, Tribeca, and Washington Heights, revealing bits of their personalities and their dreams through footage of their dancing.

I think tweens would get a kick out of watching their peers learning the foxtrot, the merengue, and swing, but maybe it'd be too painful to see your insecurities about the opposite sex and your own body reflected back at you. As an adult who was introduced to ballroom dancing in college, however, I was tickled to see how these fifth graders reacted when forced to touch each other in various dancing poses (safe touching, of course, which isn't a bad lesson to learn at the age of 11) and let their feet and hips do the talking instead of their overactive mouths. I can't wait to see how my nieces will react to Mad Hot Ballroom.

For further viewing, check out the Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound (2002).