Experience the Peabody Award-winning documentary that inspired this season’s most exciting and groundbreaking new Broadway musical—How To Dance in Ohio—then join the musical’s creative team and filmmaker Alexandra Shiva for a conversation with Broadway producer and JBFC Board member, Dori Berinstein. 

A first kiss, a first dance. These are the rites of passage of American youth that hold the promise of magic, romance, and initiation into adulthood. For kids from all walks of life, these first steps toward intimacy are at once exciting and terrifying. For some teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum, the transition can be nothing less than paralyzing. In Columbus, Ohio, a group of young people with an array of developmental challenges prepares for an iconic event: a spring formal dance. They spend 12 weeks confronting and practicing their social skills as they prepare for the big event, to be hosted at a local disco. Working with their trusted psychologist, they deconstruct fear and larger-than-life social anxiety one step at a time by picking dates, dresses, and, ultimately, a King and Queen of the Prom.

Winner of the 2015 Peabody Award for Documentary Film, How to Dance in Ohio is a story of the universal human need to grow, connect, and belong as uniquely dramatized by individuals facing the deepest struggle toward social survival.