“Mad Hot Ballroom” is just about as adorable as a documentary can be. The stars are New York City public-school children enrolled in a ballroom-dance program. Poised at the time of life just before teenage angst, these uninhibited, excitable children work toward the citywide dance competition – and take on the mannerisms of ballroom ladies and gentlemen.

Co-producers Amy Sewell and Marilyn Agrelo (the latter directed the film) tracked the progress of the children – all around age 11 – at three very different schools in the city: P.S. 150, located in TriBeCa and attended by precocious, mainly affluent kids; P.S. 115, a Washington Heights school at which 97% of the children, from the strongly Dominican neighborhood, are at poverty level or below; and P.S. 112 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a neighborhood shifting from an Italian to an Asian population.

The classes, provided to more than 60 schools, are led by instructors from the nonprofit American Ballroom Theater. The 10-year-old program is structured so that after the children complete the required 10-week program, the schools can choose to compete at the end of the year. During the shooting of this film last year, 48 schools competed and nine advanced to the finals.

The film takes its title from the children’s use of “mad,” which is slang for “very.” To paraphrase one line: “I thought dancing would be hard, but it’s mad easy!” We get to know the students through interviews and footage of them dancing. While the Washington Heights girls talk about avoiding drug dealers and drunks, the Asian girls in Bensonhurst share a patient, observant mien. Meanwhile, the TriBeCa kids are parodies of city-savvy adults.

It’s not the talking, though, that makes for the laughs. It’s the learning process and the facial expressions, particularly those incurred when having to touch or look directly at someone of the opposite sex. Partnering cannot be avoided. The five categories for the competition are merengue, rumba, tango, foxtrot, and swing. Initially, the dancing is stilted and awkward but always earnest. By the time of the competition, some of the dancers have become coordinated and sometimes adult-like.

The film’s most significant theme is competition, an idea that smolders beneath the surface and suggests the effects of politically correct psychology. When the instructors from the American Ballroom Theater meet to discuss what they will ask judges to focus on (the judgest include Ann Reinking), they discuss how to prevent the students who do not make the next round from feeling upset. One of the instructors, however, blurts out something along the lines of “Second place is first loser!” Taking that another step, the program’s leader reminds the instructors that, indeed, life is tough and competition is healthy.

That attitude is not fully shared by the principal of the school in TriBeCa (a neighborhood that is home to the likes of Nobu and a splashy independent film festival). She mentions at the beginning of the film that she was reluctant to have the children compete. “I’m not such a fan of hard competition and winning,” she says.

Uptown in the Dominican neighborhood, however, the principal bothers with no such hand-wringing. “They’ll compete because they want to win,” she says. Indeed, the mood here is much tougher: Uncooperative kids are bounced out of the program. One, who insults another, is made to apologize or leave the group. Back at the TriBeCa school, the teacher (who cries with the young ones when they lose in an early round) asks the students to “share” how they feel about the competition.

It doesn’t take a child psychologist to figure out which group ends up with the trophy, a colossal structure that towers over most of the students. Stereotypical as it may be, the Dominicans can really dance. The couples competing for the trophy in each of the five categories move with musicality and flair.

What pulls at the heartstrings is that the process of learning, competing, and caring about something trans forms several of the students. According to voice-overs by the principals, some who were about to be lost to thuggery or complacency took on a new purpose. So while this film will likely be compared to “Spellbound” (the 2002 film about children in spelling bees), there is much more to “Mad Hot Ballroom” than just amusing faces. The hard facts of reality and growing up in New York City get serious treatment here.

Ms. Sewell and Ms. Agrelo succeed by allowing the children to tell those stories, rather than imposing their adult voices or interpretations. “Mad Hot Ballroom” lets the little ones have their say, as well as their turn on the dance floor.