Dancing to Happiness (Tanz ins Glück)

Anna is working as a cleaning lady. Every night she cleans Helen’s office. Helen is a high-level broker working in the stock exchange. The two women live in different worlds and normally would never meet each other. However, they happen to have enrolled in the same salsa course. “Lightly written and deftly performed, ‘Dancing to Happiness’ is a pure charmer.” – Sean Bugg, Washington Metro Weekly. Selected Screenings: LesGaiCineMad, 2009 (Madrid, Spain); Hamburg Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, 2009 (Germany); Inside Out Lesbian & Gay Festival, 2009 (Toronto, ON) Director’s statement In film school I had the wonderful possibility to try something which goes against the rules of the normal film market. This is how “Tanz ins Glück” was created – a lesbian fairytale. Neither “lesbian” nor “fairytale” are criteria which make a producer happy. However, I found the combination thrilling. When I was a child, my parents told me the tales of a poor girl and a wealthy prince. I loved the part, when he comes with his white horse to take the girl home to his castle. Only later I realised that there is a lack of lesbian couples in fairy tales. In fact there are none. I decided to create a modern one: Cinderella is a cleaning woman, the Princess a broker working in stock exchange. Their social differences remain as big as when the original tale was written. In “Tanz ins Glück” they overcome the social boarders. Because, like in all fairy tales, “they all lived happily ever after”.