And We Will Dance

And We Will Dance is a film that is at the same time dance-focused, yet thematically universal. And We Will Dance shines the spotlight on dance and the arts at the nationally-known venue, the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA). The film is directed and filmed by nationally-recognized artist Steve Childs and traces the lives of four students in NCSA's School of Dance. The film also reveals why Childs has been so fascinated with painting dancers for the past twenty-seven years. NCSA film and music students work collaboratively with Steve to produce, film, edit and score the film, which itself is a testimony to the rich creative talent and expressiveness of the next generation's artists.

And We Will Dance peeks into the lives of incredibly gifted dance students and displays their passion not merely to dance, but to collaboratively and individually explore, experience and express the full range of life's emotions through the medium of dance. Drawn into the lives of these athlete-artists, the viewer experiences the discipline, dedication, disappointment, and exhilarating delight that are a dancer's world. The film presents the real, unvarnished costs and returns, fears and freedom, anxiety and joy, risk and reward of pursuing one's passion, perhaps at the expense of one's security. The phrase "can't not dance" captures the heart of the film's young dancers and is the reason they joyfully suffer much. Their passion subtly challenges each viewer to consider what it is that he "can't not do" or "can no longer not do" and encourages him to follow his heart.

Though casting dance and the arts into the spotlight is reason enough to support the film, the film's real contribution is its inspiration and encouragement to live passionately, pursue excellence, delight in beauty, and recapture community. In this time and place in history, where both the pursuit and loss of material security have choked the joy and beauty out of life and supplanted them with fear and anxiety, And We Will Dance gently reminds and encourages that life is best and most fully lived when we are aligned with and pursuing our passion, that for which we were made, in community with others.