Mad Hot Ballroom

Finally got to watch the movie (documentary) Mad Hot Ballroom. The movie came out on DVD almost three months ago, but have not had a chance to go visit Blockbuster. Finally settled down to watch it last weekend.

It was amazing. A bunch of 4th and 5th graders talking about their ballroom dancing, competing experience and while they are at it, talk about their life, values, future.

Once upon a time, I got to go competing all over the north east.. (Brown Univ., Harvard, Boston University, MIT, UConn., Yale, NYU, West Point Military Academy, RPI, SUNY Albany, and more that I cant remember..) For some reason, college competitions were not that big when I moved to California. I also got married, had kids, got more responsibilities at work, bought and sold two homes.. and all this distracted me away from Ballroom Dancing.

But the lessons I learnt from Dancing were not restricted to the dance floor.
I learnt :
1. how to be confident (there is something to be said about working up the guts to ask a woman to dance with you.. it is quite different from asking a woman out on a date because the context and timeframe are so different)

2. understand women better (yes, my understanding went from 0.00000000000001 %to about 0.00000000000005 % , but that is a lot better than the average man I tell you!)

3. how to face rejection (you learn to take it sportingly when a woman says "sorry, cant dance with you")

4. how to handle competition

5. How to be a team player (granted it is a two person team, but my relationships with my dance partners have been orders of magnitude more complicated than my relationship with my wife ! Your winning and losing is a matter of their health, mood, attitude and any number of other factors in their life that are totally out of your control).

and more than anything

6. Moving on my feet gracefully..

Inspired by the movie, with my baby perched nicely on my well rounded tummy and her hand tucked into mine, I tried to waltz across the living room in the apartment. Started huffing and puffing after less than a minute. 7 years earlier, I could do the same step 4000 times a day and not show any signs of stress. I can still move gracefully, tummy or otherwise (will videoblog this soon) and I have now made myself a promise to get rid of my tummy and get back on my dancing feet.

The movie makes me want to go visit New York and the east coast in general. Dont miss this movie. It is really well made..