Take Your Partners

Doncaster couples enjoy the pleasures of a dinner and dance in this charming insight into 1960s nightlife.

This short uplifting film focuses on the excitement of a tightknit Doncaster community who enjoy a dinner dance. The camera follows table conversation in close-up before focusing on the dancing couples that take to the floor after dinner. The director employs an unusual slanted angle for the dancing scenes which lends itself well to the angular mayhem of the crisscrossing couples.

Dinner dances were popular occasions in the mid-20th Century and remain well-attended in British towns and cities today. Dinner dances are commonly held in social clubs, hotels, and restaurants.