Take Hands

In 2015, a dream team of a renowned dance caller and an old time band embedded in Coos Bay, OR, a distressed logging town in transition, for a week's residency to teach contra dance, dance calling, and playing in a band. The organizers are intent on reaching deep into their community--the schools, the community college, the neighborhoods--and getting as many people to the dance as they can reach. Stacy, an out lesbian, is the primary organizer and we follow her for a year as she builds support for the event. Pat, a mechanic and leader in the traditional square dance community, mostly older conservative folks, who are suspicious of about this new fangled, popular contra dance style that the newcomers flock to. A family of musical prodigies make the 90 mile drive every week, to sustain their only connection to a music and dance community. They all come together at the big dance event at the end of the week.