I felt very connected to these kids 
Forget , the real dancefloor action takes place in Marilyn Agrelo's Mad Hot Ballroom. This acclaimed documentary is about three groups of diverse 11-year-old kids taking part in New York's American Ballroom Theater's Rainbow Team Matches, and is one of the feelgood movies of 2005.
What was it about ballroom dancing competitions in state schools that made you feel it was right for a documentary?
My friend Amy Sewell approached me with the idea. She's a freelance writer and she had written an article in the local paper covering the Tribeca school in 2003, and she asked me if I would do a documentary in 2004 following the next crop of kids from the Tribeca school. And it didn't really appeal to me so much, it felt kind of small. But what did appeal to me was the chance to contrast different kids. New York is such a diverse place and the neighbourhoods can be so radically different. What I liked about that was seeing a lot of kids from different backgrounds and ethnic and ecomonic situations doing the same thing, and how they would react differently. It was this idea that really hooked me.
How difficult was it to choose the three schools?
The Tribeca school we were going to do because it's kind of unique, it's a small little school and these kids are really, really verbal. That was a nice thing for them to bring to the table - their parents are all professionals and educated, so these kids would have a lot to say. And then to contrast that, we just looked round and when I saw the school at Washington Heights, what really sealed the deal for me was their teacher Yomaira Reynoso, because she was so driven and passionate. I liked the idea of this group of immigrant kids - they were all Dominicans in this little enclave of Dominican people, and dancing for them is part of their makeup. And then this Brooklyn school just caught my eye because they were all, you know, simple kids, uncomplicated and working class, and very, very ethnically diverse. It just seemed like these three were very different and had very good qualities that counterpointed each other.
Without giving anything away, if you'd chosen three schools that were knocked out at the early stages you wouldn't have much drama in your movie. How much was that a consideration?
SPOILER: Yeah, that was a concern, and in the quarter-finals when two of my three teams were knocked out, that was a worry. As things started to progress I knew that Brooklyn would get knocked out quickly, because they couldn't dance [laughs], but I thought Tribeca would hang on till at least the next round. The idea, really, from our point of view, was never to have the ending we have - it was never to have the huge trophy-winning team with this sports film kind of ending. It was really just a story about their journey, but of course I wanted someone to last until the end, or at least to compete in the finals. I kind of knew that Washington Heights would do that, really because of their teacher and because you could just see by looking at these kids for five minutes that dance is their secret weapon, you know? They don't speak English well, they're not connected, they don't have a lot of advantages, but when it comes to dancing don't fool around with them!
How much did your own Cuban background influence the choice of Washington Heights?
It had a lot to do with it. It was really a lot more than, "Oh, these kids are Dominican, that's interesting." I came from an immigrant family too and I felt very connected to these kids. I grew up in the suburbs, it wasn't this neighbourhood with drug dealers or anything, but still I knew them by virtue of growing up in a Spanish family. I knew a lot about their family life and the way their parents were. I had an emotional connection to them.
Other than the teachers, adults don't feature in the film much. Was that always the plan?
In the planning of this film, there was a lot of thought put into talking to the parents and talking more to the teachers, and talking a lot to the people that put on the dance program, getting the story from their point of view. But in a documentary, the film frequently changes course without you knowing it or planning it, it just goes in a different direction. For us, when the kids started speaking about their lives and their thoughts this became the focus, and the adults really receded into the background. I myself had never seen an intimate film getting into the minds of kids this age, and it fascinated me. It was just a more interesting way to go, I think.
Were the children how you'd imagined them to be, or were you surprised by their attitudes?
Very surprised. I don't have kids, but I do remember being that age, and it's a different world. I was very surprised by how worldly these kids are, and how they understand the world around them. Some of these kids... I don't know if you remember Cyrus in Tribeca, he has a line in the film where he says "Ballroom dancing is like a little grain of sand if you count the rest of the country." Right after that statement in the interview he went into a political tirade about how we have to get George Bush out of the White House, and that there were no weapons of mass destruction! It was blowing my mind, not only in the case of Cyrus but also the kids from Brooklyn, who were the most child-like and sheltered. They think about the world around them. It was really hearing what these kids have to say, and the secret to unlocking them was to get them out of their houses, away from their parents, and engage them in conversation with each other, and then they just started to speak.
Because you get the children to speak in a very relaxed way by chatting to each other...
They just speak a different way with each other. When it's speaking to an adult, they take on a certain manner of speaking. But also, we were with them so much we kind of became invisible to a certain degree. One of the earliest things we shot was these two little girls walking and talking down the street in Washington Heights, and it was hard to make them STOP talking. So we were like, "Ok, let's keep trying this... it's not a trick, this technique." And everytime it just worked so well.
When you're filming one of the first competitions, I was thinking, "How are the kids not intimated by having a camera in their face?" But then you pan around the room and pretty much every parent is recording the event on their camcorder!
You know what I think? I imagine it's a similar situation in England, but here kids grow up with camcorders in their faces. Parents are recording their first steps, this, that, the vacation, it's not such an alien, intimidating thing. And we shot this on mini-DV, it was not unlike what they've seen a million times already, and I really think that was a factor in how comfortable they were with us pretty quickly.
When the film ends you really want to know what's going to happen to these kids in the future. Would you go back in five or ten years' time?
SPOILER: Actually, I've thought about this and I would like to. It's not even about the question of dance and are they dancing. I mean, who cares? It's really just to see where they've taken things in their lives, and again in particular the kids from Washington Heights. I feel like this moment of victory for them was so important, and it's not about this hideous trophy that they won, or a dance competition. It was important because they triumphed over these other kids and that they just felt their power, you know. For me the question is, does that moment of success stay with them, does it tell them that they can succeed in other things, and also to see what these children do with their lives. I'm definitely interested in pursuing it in a few years' time.
Mad Hot Ballroom is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25th November 2005.
