Ida's Dance Club

Filmmaker Dalit Kimor focuses her lens on a Tel Aviv ballroom dancing club for senior citizens—the majority being emigrants who, it seems, never truly assimilated into Israeli life. The organization offers a welcome refuge, where the burdens of old age almost vanish when the music starts and the eponymous Ida (a one-time Russian singer) performs Hebrew-language versions of Broadway show tunes. The film's central focus is a Dancing With the Stars–style competition, and the level of fancy footwork that participants bring to the dance floor is wonderfully surprising. Yet Kimor avoids falling into the trap of a feel-good production, providing snapshots of the harsh and often tragic lives of several individuals—one woman cares for an ill adult child, while another's daughter refuses to visit her for the Rosh Hashanah holiday. Surprisingly, the final competition doesn't dominate Ida's Dance Club, since we see only the briefest glimpses of the contestants in their finest hour, along with some grumbling from a pair eliminated from the finals. Instead, this unsentimental film provides a compelling look at how a handful of seniors manage to keep moving (literally and figuratively) through the late stretches of their lives. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)