hyped garbage

Admirable film.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

In 1994, ballroom dancing was introduced to 5th graders in the New York area. There are thousands of public school kids trying to enter into the annual competition between the schools. These kids come from varying backgrounds. Some have heart-breaking stories as they find discipline and comfort in their new interest. The most compelling parts of this documentary are the snippets of personal opinions coming from the kids. The major problem is there are so many kids that it's hard to keep track of them. The film would do well to limit the number of kids and spend more time with them at home. The kids dancing is cute and compelling. Those little interviews are what make the film sings.

"Excellent!" is a word I've heard applied to this film by so many different viewers from so many different backgrounds; one prominent New York critic refers to it as "slight and charming;" I rather think of it as "monumental and utterly mesmerizing." We observe a batch of disparate kids from various ethnicities come together as they are exposed to art, in this case the art of dancing; this is not a sugarcoated look at childhood, but a fascinating examination of what happens when dedicated teachers are able to interact with love and discipline and give kids honest self-esteem which they earn by active participation. This film is the best argument I've seen for increasing the Federal Arts Education Budget and perhaps spending a little less on bombs and already obsolete armaments; your contacts with many of the kids will leave you with a pleasant feeling, instead of feeling assaulted with car explosions, torrents of expletives and noisy special effects--this is excellent entertainment at a high level--and without condescension or sugar coating!

This is exhilarating! It's uplifting and life-affirming! I am not a dance fan movie and if I have any dance moves they are the opposite of Fred Astaire. But this documentary on teaching 10 year olds' to dance just grabbed me.It's about 10 year olds' in public school in New York who are taking dance lessons – as in learning tango, swing, meringue, rumba… They practise and practise and then face a competition where sadly some will be eliminated. It is really worth it to just look at the expressions of these young children as they are learning and dancing. Credit really must also go to the teachers who are so dedicated.

This is amateurish, camcorder-level shooting. The content is essentially an argument by teachers for why the program should be funded, and would have been better off used for this purpose with the NYC Board of Education.I was sorely disappointed by this film, as I am originally from NYC, went to a "P.S." grade school, and was charmed by the idea of reminiscing a little watching the opening credits.It is a boring documentary with a few cute moments when the kids are dancing, and a few interesting comments by two children -- one a 10 y.o. girl, who is a sort of philosopher, and one a 10-y.o. boy, who is quite talkative. The reasons for my rating of 2 and not 1.The cutting is terrible. I enjoy dance, and some of the kids were good dancers, but the photography tries to capture faces (poorly), and jumps, as in an action movie, every 3 seconds. The included announcements of winners is trying to sit through, slow and trite.A minor complaint: It was also annoying to see that although this is about 5th grade, the winners of the "contest" seem to be kids who are at least 13 years old. They therefore are able to manage "Cuban" motion better, as they are apparently already postpubertal. Although the teachers seem to struggle with making the competition fair, and with not hurting any child's feelings (although sensitive, this also got repetitive), the entire contest actually seemed unfair to many, who were only about 10 years old.