To Dance Again

On January 21, 2023, the Asian American community of Southern California was rocked by the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Los Angeles County. Eleven people were killed and nine others were injured as a gunman sought out elders at a Monterey Park ballroom dance studio on the eve of Lunar New Year.

TO DANCE AGAIN pays tribute to the community’s resilience in the face of this unspeakable tragedy. In the aftermath, the Chinatown Service Center’s MPK Hope Resiliency Center had a clear purpose: Support the mostly AAPI Elders affected by this tragedy with programs and initiatives designed specifically to help heal and rebuild. A key part of the mental health and wellness programming, ballroom dance classes harness the power of dance to build community, foster resiliency and healing, and nurture our innate capacity for joy.

Film Content Advisory: Grief, Mass Shooting, Mass Violence

Credits
Writer: MG Evangelista
Producer: Simone Ling, Robert C. Winn
Executive Producer: Brad Jenkins, Kristen Wong, Melvin Mar
Director of Photography: Irvin Liu, Andrea Walter (Additional Photography)
Editor: Alan Wu
Production Designer: Taylor Chen
Composer: Lisa Liyou, Eunike Tanzil
Sound Designer: Sungrok Choi
Music: Lisa Liyou, Eunike Tanzil

Plays in

We Are More! Revisited

A journey of loss, self-expression, hope, displacement, and the reclaiming of experiences in a complicated, interconnected world. WE ARE MORE! is a series of short docs that takes all of your assumptions about life and throws them out the window.