Noc na Tanečku (Night at the Dance)

I met Steve Dean, the co-founder of Texas Dance Hall Preservation, and he started taking me around to different dance halls, sharing the history with me. After a trip to Sefcik Hall, and meeting Alice, the owner, I knew I wanted to focus a film on this very special place. I found it all very moving–the elderly folks who still went there each week to wax the floors and dance the polka; the joy they found in connecting with one another, their grit in making it up that steep staircase every Sunday, the graveyard next door where some of their spouses, whom they met at the dance hall, were buried. Despite many of them struggling with illness and death, there was so much life and joy within the walls. It was inspiring, and a reminder that at any age, we need each other, we need music, we need dance, we need celebration…