The movie "Mad Hot Ballroom" has inspired a number of efforts in school systems around the country and in the Kansas City area. Louis Bar is teaching ballroom to a set of area shool children of varying ages. At the end of the original starting period they will compete with each other during the Louis and Company showcase, held this year at Drexell Hall on May 13th.

Note: Louis is looking for sponsors for the kids' supplies (dance shoes). These are free from Louis so he is expending considerable resources of his own. Contact Louis at 913.385.0707.

Louis' combined ballroom classes run about 40 young ballroom dancers. They are learning swing, cha cha, tango and more. If you remember (some of you) dancing used to be a common course in most elementary and junior-high schools. We would be marched over to the gym or the multi-use cafeteria or some other large assembly room where a local dance teacher would separate us into a girl's line and a boy's line, give us our moves and then bring us together. That has become rare, so much so that the ratio of boys trained in dance to girls trained in dance is huge. Louis cites a 500 to one ratio.

My own comment is usually, so why does any boy want to sit on a football bench with a bunch of other guys to impress girls when he could be dancing with 500 girls? Where is the logic?

In the 1800's a military officer's education was not complete without thorough training in ballroom dance. "The" social graces were important to the military.

The ballroom kids at Louis are in class each monday and wednesday in one of two classes, 5pm and 5:45 pm. The competition on the 13th will be a black tie affair, formal. This will be the first year that Louis has used Drexel Hall for his showcase and the first set of ballroom kids classes to be in the showcase. Drexel Hall (mid-town, 31st and Baltimore) is a century-old hall and the oldest ballroom (continuously used) in the KC area.