Few things can actually bring people as much pride as seeing their neighborhood immortalized. In sixth grade, the new principal of my school decided to reach out to the students by having us create a rap video. Our principal was rapping!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZFZiw0spVA) When he first rapped, everyone began laughing; they thought he was doing this just for personal fame. Personally, I found the whole thing hilarious, but it was the video that particularly interested me. When they forced us to watch it, I focused on the setting, thinking to myself, ‘That’s where I would embarrass myself at handball everyday!’ or ‘that’s the deli where my dad and I would walk to every summer!’ It just felt special.
The fact that this video was shown on television and film festivals made me feel a bit proud (even if I hated the music): the world will get to see something that is such a big part of me. I wonder if that’s how the children of Mad Hot Ballroom felt when viewing the finished movie.
Honestly, I was not a big fan of Do the Right Thing. At least, I was not for the first few minutes of watching it. The colors and fashion of the movie were so unusual to me that I could not relate to it. As I continued watching I began to remember that this society really did have such fashions and music and dialect. The movie did begin to interest me, however it was still very unfamiliar.
Mad Hot Ballroom, on the other hand, was exactly like the scenery I am used to. When they he showed children in the Forest Hills school, I seriously thought the actors were inside my elementary school gym. The blue mats against the wall and the scattered equipment reminded me of my elementary school. The resemblance was striking. Even the outside of the school looked exactly like my Queens Village elementary school.
These children, mostly middle class with few minorities, were the children that surrounded me in my elementary school. When introducing the school, views of the quiet neighborhood abundant with trees was a sharp contrast to the schools previously shown. The Brooklyn schoolchildren were aware of problems such as infidelity and drugs while the Forest Hills children appeared to be the 5th graders most of us are used to. Even the neighborhoods were very different: while one was quiet and pleasant the other was busy and noisy. It was also filled with minorities, most of which were speaking Ebonics, which is often related to a lower status. In addition, the program had different effects on each group of children. The Forest Hills children were forced to smile and had to follow strict dance instructions. The children from Brooklyn truly enjoyed dancing: they would practice during their free time and they had authentic smiles on their faces. Dancing changed their lives and turned delinquents into well-behaved students.
Distinct from these two neighborhoods was the school in Manhattan with the younger children and pleasant teacher. Although the school was also in a busy neighborhood it was very different from the other school. The way the children spoke revealed more innocence. The outside of the school was beautiful; these were clearly children from high-class homes. These children also enjoyed dancing, but they did not reach the finals in the competition. The scene with the children crying was heartbreaking, especially after seeing their teacher cry after the progress the children were making. I must admit that once the teacher was bawling, I shed a few tears too.
Ultimately, my elementary school experience only resembled the Forest Hills school. I was able to relate to it and wonder if I would have enjoyed the program more than they appeared to. Perhaps I would hate it, especially if I had their instructor who appeared to be mean. Either way, Mad Hot Ballroom was really touching and an excellent preserver of three different communities.
