Musical Chairs (2011)

When, Mia, a dance teacher, lands in the hospital after an accident, Armando, a would-be dancer who admires her from afar, persuades her to train for an upcoming wheelchair ballroom dancing contest.

Director:

Susan Seidelman

Writer:

Marty Madden

Stars:

Leah Pipes, E.J. Bonilla, Priscilla Lopez

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Leah Pipes	...	Mia
E.J. Bonilla	...	Armando
Priscilla Lopez	...	Isabel
Jaime Tirelli	...	Bernardo
Laverne Cox	...	Chantelle
Nelson Landrieu	...	Wilfredo
Angelic Zambrana	...	Rosa
Morgan Spector	...	Kenny
Philip Willingham	...	Daniel
Auti Angel	...	Nicky
Jerome Preston Bates	...	Jimmy
Joey Dedio	...	Chico
Dominic Colon	...	Julio
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joseph Basile	...	Car Accident Witness
Teena Byrd	...	Ballroom Audience

Storyline

A romantic tale of two New Yorkers, Armando Ortiz, from the Bronx, and Mia Franklin, from the Upper East Side, and their unlikely meeting. The story tells how the two of them come together through their love of ballroom dancing. Mia is a beautiful and vivacious professional dancer. Armando works at the midtown Manhattan dance studio in exchange for lessons and fantasizes of a time when he will dance with Mia. But a tragic accident forever changes Mia's life. True to his heart, Armando dedicates himself, along with a group of colorful misfits, to help Mia overcome her painful challenges and dance once more.

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Plot Keywords:

dancer | ballroom dancing | dancing | wheelchair | dance teacher | 

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Taglines:

Everybody dances to their own beat.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language, some sexual material and a brief drug reference

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 September 2011 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$9,092 (USA) (23 March 2012)

Gross:

$31,316 (USA) (13 April 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Active Fox Productions, JMC Independent Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nominated for 2013 GLAAD Media Awards "Outstanding Feature, Limited Release"

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Quotes

Chantelle: [rolling her chair into the rehearsal hall] The Dancing Queen has arrived!

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Connections

Referenced in Push Girls: Watch Me (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Dance With Me"
Based on the song "Hernando's Hideaway" by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler, from the musical "The Pajama Game"
Sung offscreen by Debelah Morgan during rehearsal montage

User Reviews

Thism movie has the potential to live on a provide inspiration for many people

This is a movie from which you will learn something about people and about the heart. It is about music and it is about dance . It is about what can happen when a person suddenly finds him or herself in a wheel chair for the rest of their life. Director Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan ) takes a screenplay by Marty Madden and somehow does a perfect casting job starting off with E.J Bonilla, a young actor who plays Armando with a flair for music, dance and the ability to project his intensity and his sincerity when he encounters Mia (Leah Pipes) a beautiful young dancer before and after her tragic accident. The story flows as smoothly as the music and the dance of this film. Most of the rest of the engaging cast is this young man's New York Puerto Rican second generation family who owns a restaurant and especially his mother (Pricilla Lopez) who has to struggle with her aspirations for her son and her realization of his love for his new girlfriend. The other group of extraordinary colorful players in this film are the people in wheelchairs who find that they can express themselves in dance. In reality only one of the actors, Auti Angel, who plays Nicky is actually confined to a wheel chair. She was a promising professional dancer who has a true story that is not too far from the plot of this movie. Behind the scenes we understand that she assisted and inspired the actors in wheelchairs to take on their personas. We view this movie as fairy tales where things happen and people say and do things not quite the way they may happen in real life. It reminds us of a musical where it can be convenient to suddenly find a place to sing (or in this case a hospital gym at night to dance in a special way). The characters and some of the dialog are somewhat clichéd. This doesn't seem to really matter because the emotion and the message of the movie is very real. We think everyone should be able to relate to this film and learn something about the human spirit. We also think that it has the potential to live on by teaching young people in schools and be an inspiration for the thousands of people every year who find themselves in a place they never thought they would be. Part of the storyline of the movie is a dance contest being held in New York labeled "The First International Wheelchair Dance Competition" In reality, while wheelchair dancing is big in Europe it hasn't quite caught on in the USA. It would not surprise us if after this film is released and gets around we will see this event in some major city. That is part of the great potential of this movie. FilmRap.net