We interview Rick Gomez, Steve Zahn, Audrey Zahn and Mackenzie Ziegler on She Dances, their heartwarming new film about grief, resilience and community.
It’s rare to find a film that is as full of laughter as it is heart, and yet co-writers Rick Gomez and Steve Zahn struck the perfect balance with She Dances. While it presents as a father-daughter comedy, She Dances delightfully turns out to be so much more than meets the eye, focusing on the power of friendship, the beauty of self-expression and the importance of showing up for your people in their time of need.
She Dances centers around the fractured relationship between Jason (Steve Zahn, of Silo) and his daughter Claire (Audrey Zahn, of Imperfect Women). Following the passing of his son, Jason has found it hard to maintain his connection to his daughter as he has slowly retreated from his life in the wake of this tragedy. Claire, less intent to pull away from her life as she knows it, struggles as the world around her is changing faster than she can understand.
Claire is in her last year of high school and about to embark on her final dance competition after growing up as a competitive dancer. When her mother is no longer able to drive Claire and her best friend, Kat (Mackenzie Ziegler), and there is no other chaperone seemingly available, Jason steps in at the last minute, much to Claire’s chagrin. As the three embark on this trip to the girl’s final competition, Jason hopes he can find a way to reconnect with his daughter and bridge the divide that has been growing between them.
The film itself is a real testament to the filmmaking community Gomez and Zahn have created over the years. The long-time collaborating duo co-founded the production company Macaroni Art Productions, which produced the film and included several close friends and peers within this project, namely star Audrey Zahn, Steve’s daughter in real life.
In our interview with director/co-writer Rick Gomez, co-writer/star Steve Zahn and stars Audrey Zahn and Mackenzie Ziegler, we spoke about creating a balance with the various tones in the film, crafting the familial and platonic relationships through the shooting process and making a movie about community utlizing the co-writers’ real shared community.
Rick Gomez and Steve Zahn on How She Dances Balances Comedy and Tragedy
This film is so funny yet introspective and as profound in its analysis of grief as sincere in its examination of friendship. How do you go about striking a balance between the different tones and beats the movie takes on?
Rick Gomez: I tiptoed through it very gingerly. Steve and I were really intentional about the balance in the writing, specifically how the friendships paid off, and what we would normally think would happen in a film like this to certain friendships and how we wanted to pay tribute to the friendships we were in.
It was important we showed how people told each other that they loved each other and that they cared about each other and that they were sorry, while also balancing the comedy, absurdity, grief and healing. You’re trying to get the tone just right so people can slip into this world but also find themselves laughing.
One of my favorite things that happened was at a film festival recently. Somebody said, “I’ve never cried so hard at a comedy.” I said, “I’ll take that,” because that is the magic trick we are trying to pull off.
Steve Zahn: We wanted this comedy to be really truthful and well-balanced. To do that, we were constantly tweaking it and taking things away. I think that’s the best way of putting it: we were stripping away stuff to make the story as neat as possible, which is what you want to do as a writer to have a focused story.
We have this hurdle of grief in this movie that we wanted to always be there, but not be the focus of the movie. It was important that the aspect of grief was always there because in life, it’s always there, but you do have moments where you can forget about it, and then you have moments where you can’t. The intent of all that is there in the script, but it also comes out in the cut, too and Coby Toland, who is our editor and a producer, is brilliant and he cut together a really good movie.
How Real Life Informed She Dances
Audrey, your performance was so captivating in She Dances. How did you initially get involved in the project, and with this being your father Steve’s first writing credit, what did you think of the script when you first read it?
Audrey Zahn: The film is kind of loosely based on a dance competition my dad took me to in my senior year. It was Dance Masters of America; I was up for Miss Dance, and we were staying at the Gaylord, which is the craziest hotel. My dad was sending Rick so many pictures of what was going on and at the same time, there was a lot of emotion because it was my last year and my last real big competition. But because of everything, Rick and my dad said, “We should make a story about this”. You don’t really see competitions in movies that often.
Steve Zahn: It’s a really interesting subculture that so many people are involved with in the United States, and at the same time, it’s really not represented in a lot of movies or TV shows.
A.Z.: Yeah, that’s kind of where the story came from. I read the script a year later, and of course, they added the grief aspect to drive the story, but I remember I cried really hard. It was almost tough to read something that reflects your life and your childhood so much, but at the same time, I absolutely loved it, and I’m so proud that we got to do it together.
S.Z.: Truly, there was no one else in our brains that could have played the part of Claire.
I think it’s really evident that, as much as this film is about a father-daughter relationship, it really digs into the importance of friendship and community. I know there was so much of your real-life community involved in the making of this film; how did that shape the experience for all of you on set?
S.Z.: It was everything. I’ve never been involved with a project that was so tight and so deeply connected. We could make a family tree for this film, with Rick and me, and from there, we have Rick’s brother Josh, who did the music. Audrey’s dance peer and friend [Haley Fish] plays Dolph and her mom is a judge and the voice of the competition. Her husband [Wes Whitehead] was even our music supervisor . Jamie Harvener, who choreographed it, is like a son to me. Rick’s wife and my wife are in it. The connections throughout are just endless.
It really felt like all hands on deck. This little movie, with a little budget, brought all these friends together to make something. I’m so excited that this beautiful movie about humanity is going to be out in the world. This world can be very angry, and this movie feels like it’s exactly what it needs right now.
Rick Gomez: Steve and I have known each other forever, but we’ve really been best friends for almost ten years now. Friendship is huge in this. There was a bit of magic in the film itself with how quickly Kenzie and Audrey related to each other and became fast friends. All of the connections just felt like being a part of a big magic trick.
Mackenzie Ziegler: 100%. When I walked into that set, I felt like everyone was my family. It was so special, I didn’t want to leave.
Mackenzie Ziegler and Audrey Zahn on Crafting and Relating to Their Characters
Mackenzie, Kat is such a genuinely good friend to Claire, comforting her in times of need but motivating her when she needs an extra push forward. How did you craft that dynamic with Audrey?
Mackenzie Ziegler: With Audrey, our friendship really blossomed on set, and we just became such fast friends. I think it translated in the film:, how we were in the film is exactly how we are in real life. The dynamic between my sister and me is very similar to that between Audrey and me, which is what I really wanted to portray in the film. My sister and I are the best of friends, but we will also push one another and be the person whose shoulder the other can cry on. My sister dealt with grief last year, and I really became that friend for her, which, looking back, I never knew this role would prepare me for.
Kat also really effortlessly fits into the dynamic between Jason and Claire without feeling like she’s an intrusion that’s debilitating for their reconciliation. How did you strike a balance between being a safe space for Claire and giving her and Jason enough room and encouragement to find their way back to one another?
Mackenzie Ziegler: This film felt so close to me since I grew up in the dance world, and I felt like Kat was very similar to me in real life. I definitely took things from my personal life to work with. I grew up without my dad being super present in my life, so it was interesting to watch Claire have that dynamic with her dad, because I feel like I have been her in so many ways, so I played Claire’s friend then how I would want to be a friend to Claire in real life.
Really, there are a lot of those relationships in the dance world, too. You do travel and live with your friends and their parents on the road, and you do become super close to the parents. Most of my “best friends” included my best friends’ parents!
Also, acting alongside Steve and Audrey is like the easiest thing on planet Earth. They are the most talented and comforting people and they were able to really push me. It was an awesome experience working with them.
The emotional peak of Claire’s journey is during her final performance on stage. What was it like to film that scene and express her emotional arc with so much physicality, while she’s been more restrained up until that point?
Audrey Zahn: It was insane. I think the reason why it was so easy to bring up that emotion is because I grew up in competitive dance. I grew up being in the studio for hours and hours, sweat, blood, tears and all. I’ve done it professionally and I’ve made beautiful friendships through dance. It’s everything, it’s a huge part of my life.
Playing a character that kind of breaks the mold of the disciplined dancer and does something that she wants to do was kind of healing for me. It felt like a gift to myself doing that final dance. So in that way, it was so easy to feel that moment. It was really beautiful.
How She Dances Reflects Both on Self and Community
One of the most powerful scenes in the film is Jason telling Claire and Kat about starring in Oklahoma! when he was younger, but not telling anyone before because he wanted to keep that experience for himself. This story really sticks with the girls; how did it come to be a part of the film?
Steve Zahn: I added something in that scene that made the cut, which was “I’ve never told this to anybody,” and it’s what I think really drives that story. It’s a great story and it’s my story. I wrote it because it’s mine. If you watch the end of the credits there’s a nugget of me being interviewed as a junior in high school playing Will Parker in Oklahoma!
The story is a combination of things because I did play Will Parker, but I was working at a machine shop and I auditioned for Biloxi Blues at a professional theater. I had been working all week and I just kept thinking about this audition because it was the first time I ever auditioned for a play professionally, and I called the theater on a Friday at lunch and asked them for any news. They said, “My God, we were just about to call you, we’d love for you to play Donald J Carney,” and I was thrilled and I went and I quit the machine shop. I finished the day, I walked home and that was the beginning. After that, I was doing a play and getting paid and I couldn’t believe it; I was so excited.
Audrey Zahn: It’s my favorite scene in the whole movie.
How did the message of that scene speak to you as an artist, Audrey?
A.Z.: Claire listens to her dad tell that story and it completely influences her to go on her own and be brave and do what she wants. He didn’t even mean to do that for her; he was just telling her a story and she realized, “Oh my god, I can do that too,” and I think that’s one of the first moments where Claire and Jason feel super connected.
There have been times in my life where my dad has told me a story or said something where I’ve felt very similar to how Claire does in that moment.
While the film has such strong points about doing things for yourself, it also really highlights the power of showing up for others. Why did you find it so vital to include the importance of community when analyzing grief in your script?
Rick Gomez: Steve and I made it a mantra that we wanted to talk about grief in the largest sense that you can talk about it. It’s specific in the film, but we don’t talk directly to the specificity of it. The characters know the specificity of it, but the audience will always walk away from it knowing something happened, but we don’t know all the details. To us, that felt like a way of embracing everyone’s version of that story.
People come up to me and are talking about something specifically that happened to them, and the movie holds all of it because it doesn’t ever go, “No, it was this specific thing that is the reason Jack passed”. We tried to cast a wide net and to embrace as many people as we can with this story.
We want people to understand that our greater nature as human beings is to figure this stuff, like grief, out; our impulse is to come together. I think it’s simple. Our film is really simple, and in its simplicity, it plays a few chords that are really hopeful and necessary.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
She Dances will be released in U.S. theaters on March 27, 2026.
Header credits: Poster for She Dances (EKKL Entertainment) / Audrey Zahn, Mackenzie Ziegler, Rick Gomez and Steve Zahn pose for a portrait at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival (Bryan Derballa/Getty Images)