Dance Hall

Once unfairly dismissed as a mere “women’s picture,” Dance Hall is a rare but refreshing entry in the Ealing Studio oeuvre which foregrounds the experiences of female characters. 

Eve, Georgie, Mary and Carol spend their days working in a noisy factory – all to fund their evenings spent living it up in a noisy dance hall. As the regional dance contest looms, Eve is forced to choose between partnering up with a silk-soled Yank or a flat-footed Englishman, while Georgie sets her sights on becoming champion. 

Dance Hall rises above the generic trappings of the romantic melodrama through its well-observed depiction of dance hall culture, which is full of charming details and set to the sounds of Ted Heath’s Big Band. While the dance hall setting would have been a familiar sight for contemporary audiences, modern viewers can instead enjoy the fancy footwork and big band sounds as a double-dose of Strictly-infused nostalgia.