Associated press

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A Birmingham man who was initially pleased to have Alabama ballroom dancing depicted in a German TV documentary, now believes he was the latest victim of “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen.

Ballroom enthusiast Murray Echols said the documentary group “ruined the whole thing” when they showed up at the Vestavia Hills Civic Center lodge on Feb. 9.

About 110 people, many of them senior citizens, were at the event where an alleged Austrian man and his male dancing partner kissed after performing a sensual Argentine tango.

Cohen tricked the Alabama National Guard into allowing him onto a post as an officer candidate at the training school in February. Footage from the visit could be included in his upcoming movie featuring his character Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion writer. The reported title is “Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America For The Purpose Of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable In The Presence Of A Gay Foreigner In A Mesh T-Shirt.”

At first, Echols said everyone had a positive impression of the crew, which brought food to the event.

But that changed when the crew put on its own music during an intermission, which Echols described as “horrible,” and most of the dancers left the floor. Then a tall dancer with spiked hair came onto the floor and began dancing with the Austrian.

“It was odd, but not too upsetting, but it was becoming apparent that this was something different than they said it would be,” Echols said.

The tall dancer dipped his partner at the end and kissed him “for 10 or 15 seconds.”

“That’s when it hit the fan,” Echols said. “Everyone knew they’d been had.”

Some attendees turned the lights off so the crew couldn’t film and two women screamed at the men to leave.

The tall man then began “preaching” that his and the man’s love was wonderful and good.

“I went over and told him he needed to leave the building,” Echols said. “He told me how we shouldn’t be prejudiced. Then I shoved him really hard.”

Huntsville ballroom enthusiast Frank Tatom’s dance group may have also been a target of Cohen’s.

Tatom was contacted by a woman who said a German television documentary crew wanted to film the Dance Club at Skate Odyssey on Feb. 10 for a program on ballroom dancing in the Deep South. But Echols warned him about the crew so he told them they weren’t welcome in Huntsville.

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Information from: The Huntsville Times, http://www.al.com/hsvtimes/hsv.html