On Saturday April 19th:

4 PM
Mad Hot Ballroom

Hot from the Sundance Film Festival where it garnered massive critical acclaim, this engaging documentary follows a group of 11yr old street kids from Washington Heights (an urban New York City neighborhood) as they compete in a city wide ballroom dancing competition.

6:30 PM
Dirty Dancing (1987)

Chronicles social dancing’s place in the 60’s as experienced by one 17-year-old girl. Like the world at large, Frances “Baby” Houseman comes into her own in the summer of 1963, but in the most unlikely of places – Kellerman’s Mountain House is the Catskills, where she accompanies her family on summer vacation. One evening while exploring the grounds, Baby comes upon the staff’s all-night dance party. Amidst the excitement she discovers Johnny Castle, the resorts dance instructor. Overnight, her …

9 PM
Shall We Dance

Chicago lawyer John Clark knows his life is almost perfect. He loves his beautiful wife, he’s built a successful career and raised two wonderful kids. And yet . . . the workday is always the same routine, the commute is a grind and the family’s usually too busy to spend time together. Sometimes John wonders if this is all there is, until one evening on his way home from work he gets off his train and does the unthinkable. Without telling a soul, he secretly begins taking dance lesson…

11:30 PM
Hollywood’s 10 Best

S7, Episode #053 Hollywood’s 10 Best Dance Movies

An interesting look at Hollywood’s 10 Best Dance Movies from the movies of today and yesterday

On Sunday April 20th

4 PM
Shall We Dance

Chicago lawyer John Clark knows his life is almost perfect. He loves his beautiful wife, he’s built a successful career and raised two wonderful kids. And yet . . . the workday is always the same routine, the commute is a grind and the family’s usually too busy to spend time together. Sometimes John wonders if this is all there is, until one evening on his way home from work he gets off his train and does the unthinkable. Without telling a soul, he secretly begins taking dance lesson…

6:30 PM
Hollywood’s 10 Best

S7, Episode #053 Hollywood’s 10 Best Dance Movies

An interesting look at Hollywood’s 10 Best Dance Movies from the movies of today and yesterday.

7 PM
W Docs

You Should Be Dancing is a one hour documentary special that celebrates the recent popularity of dancing, by exploring the personal stories of people whose lives have been unexpectedly changed by dance for the better.

8 PM
Obsession.

New ballet teacher Reed Holloway takes a special interest in Erika, who is at first flattered with the teacher’s interest in her dancing. And Erika’s newly-divorced mother, Deborah, is pleased as well, as Deborah and Reed begin to date. But things turn sour when it becomes apparent that Reed is just using Deborah to get closer to Erika, as part of a carefully designed and diabolically executed plan. Erika, it turns out, reminds Reed of his late wife, and Reed is determined to have Erika take …

Hope this gives you some dance movie satisfaction. Happy watching!

The post W Channel Gives Us Dance Movies! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

So to combat the lack-of-dance-movies-blues, Evan and I, alongside Evan’s parents Annamarie and David, rented the movie Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. It looked to be a small independent movie which is not my usual cup of tea but the word “dancing” and the cover of the DVD sold me so we rented it.

In case anyone was planning on seeing this movie, here are my thoughts on it. First of all, if you wanted a movie with dancing scenes in it, you will be disappointed. There was very little dancing to be seen and what was shown was very basic lessons in cha cha and merengue with the wrong music played. Definitely did not satisfy me in that way.

What was left was a very slow, although touching, story of healing and love through dance. At Marilyn Hotchkiss’ dance school, several mourning widowed gentlemen found laughter, joy and even new romance through the miracle of dance.

The story was somewhat choppy, lacked some details to make it truly believable and was too slow for the most part, but if you are looking for a simple background movie while you are doing something (e.g. working on a puzzle as in Annamarie’s case), it will be a nice movie to see.

The post Another dance movie appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

I would love to see dancing become a regular part of the curriculum in our elementary schools. There is so much life lessons that can be learned on the dance floor that I feel kids could benefit from nowadays.

Dancing teaches men and women to communicate verbally and non verbally. It teaches chivalry and manners, things that are somehow missing in today’s world. It sharpens concentration, flexibility, coordination and it keeps kids and adults healthy and in shape.

I highly recommend renting this DVD and seeing all the benefits of dancing for kids and adults alike. Hopefully Canada will someday incorporate dancing into the school system!

The post Children and dancing appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.