Mad Hot Ballroom

From clumsy to graceful

Where I'd be hoping for a long weekend with my Kaboom girl, we ended up seeing a movie and spending some quality time on the couch.

The movie we watched, "Mad Hot Ballroom", explores teams of young dancers in four New York City elementary schools. Many of the youngsters live in poverty, come from broken homes and live in neighborhoods of despair. The children have 10 weeks to prepare for a city ballroom dancing competition, with categories that include the meringue, tango and swing.

It's a really sweet movie although it didn't show any details about the challenging home situation of the children. One girl describes her ideal future husband as someone who has an education and doesn't deal drugs. Another talks about her mother's friends being drunk at parties, and one suggests that her mother dump her father because he cheats on her.

Despite their young age, some of the children showed an incredible sense of style and rhytm, and it was amazing to watch the kids evolve from clumsy to close-to-graceful and from hesitant to confident. Is that something that only can be learned at a younger age? Maybe I should run an experiment and take some Salsa lessons. As with most women nowadays, my Kaboom girl has a full life; but as dancing is one of her passions, this would most likely enable me to spend more time with her. And if things wouldn't work out, my new found grace would surely attract other women.. :)