Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (1990) User Reviews

Dance movie about overcoming personal issues

[elitesynergy · 8/10 · 28 November 2011]

This movie was great and recommend it to anyone who loves to dance. It's very touching and romantic film. A must to watch if you are taking ballroom and Latin dance lessons.

It just goes to show how much dancing can change your life and how life it self is very unpredictable.

The current owner of the dance studio is a little Eurocentric but I love it. "triple step, triple step, rocks step" but I love how the movie teaches etiquette to little children and how it doesn't matter if you are a good dancer if you have such a rotten personality.

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Film short that inspired the longer version.

[TxMike · 1 November 2008]

Tonight we watched the 90-minute movie, "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School." It was set in present day time, and involved a 50-something man returning to the location for a reunion of sorts. It also spends considerable time on the present state of that dance studio, and its current patrons.

But this 1990 film short, listed at 34 minutes, is actually just under 30 minutes plus time for the credits. It is included as an extra on the DVD of the current film.

Set in 1962, the local California moms and pops wanted their 12 year old boys and girls to develop some sense of grace, so enrolled them in this school of ballroom dancing. The boys went very reluctantly, at first, but then looked forward to seeing and dancing with the pretty girls their age.

The film short is just presented as a chapter, 128 weeks in fact, of their growing up.

Tenderness and working through some of life's issues

[qkstqyyuy · 19 August 2022]

It was so refreshing to find a film that addresses dealing with personal loss and regrets with both sensitivity and maturity. The excellent acting and direction more then make up for some of the artistic license that results in an inaccurate portrayal of childhood "potty mouths" in the 1960's (elementary school boys did not cuss that way sixty years ago) and the over the top formality of the dance and etiquette instructor. Amazing to find a wholesome and satisfying movie in the ocean of foul mouthed action and CGI based products the are aimed at today's adolescents and young adults.