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Thousands showed up Saturday for a Milwaukee event that wasn't the Brewers vs. the Cubs. No, really.

Parents, grandparents, siblings and extended family came in force to cheer on more than 2,000 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from 38 Milwaukee schools during the third annual Danceworks Mad Hot Ballroom and Tap competition at the Bradley Center. The contest is the finale of 12 weeks of dance lessons, a program modeled after one in New York, featured in the documentary film "Mad Hot Ballroom." Sessions teach life skills by integrating tap and ballroom dance classes from professionals into regular school curriculum.

In the morning, some 1,000 students competed in three styles of tap, including swing, Latin and funk. The afternoon was dedicated to ballroom dance with sections for swing, tango and salsa. Clearly, the lessons didn't stop at the classroom door.

The audience would learn, for instance, that even if a girl is a foot taller than her partner, they can dance swing style with smiles on their faces and with the support of their classmates. Witness the chorus of MacDowell Montessori Elementary School students - boys in white shirts, black ties and black pants; girls in short heels with glitter on their faces and shoulders - chanting "Go 344!" during the first round of ballroom competition. The encouraged couple wore the number pinned to the boy's shirt.

They learned you can dress boys up but they will still act like boys, such as the one in a shirt and tie running a foot race with a young girl in the expansive Bradley Center hallway while he was waiting for his turn. Other couples practiced their dance moves unabashedly and without music.

And there's the lesson that it is possible for a fan to hug a student wearing a flouncy peach dress - as the girls from Vieau School were wearing - and not spill a plate of nachos.

Students weren't the only ones on a learning curve. Kathleen Grusenski, a Danceworks employee who spent two hours a week teaching tap at Golda Meir Elementary School and two hours a week teaching ballroom at MacDowell Montessori, found that she loved teaching.

"I learned I want to go into education with this age group," Grusenski said. "It was awesome."

Make that awesome all the way around.

Destiny Jackson, 10, a fifth-grader at Golda Meir, gripped a second-place trophy with both hands at the finale of the tap competition. Her school took home a 3-foot-high trophy for having the most couples place during the tap portion of the program.

How would she celebrate? She wasn't sure, but her father was.

"We're going to call up all the relatives and tell them," said Victor Jackson. A son, Devin, took second place for his cha-cha in the ballroom portion last year.

"You see their personalities come out that you didn't know existed," Jackson said.