Act 2

Ren drives Ariel and friends 100 miles outside Bomont to a dance hall where they party into the night and teach Willard how to dance. When Ariel finally arrives home, her defiance infuriates Rev Moore, who denies he has become too severe since the death of his son, one of the teenagers killed in the fateful car accident. Angered he walks away again.

At the long awaited town council meeting, with Ariel’s help Ren makes his case for a dance. When the motion is defeated, he is devastated, but his mother convinces him that Rev Moore “fixed” the vote, and urges him to try again and speak privately with the minister.

Ren goes to the church, but after a brief discussion in which Rev Moore is unable to share his fears and motivation for continuing the ban, he asks Ren to leave and turns away. Appalled by his own actions, it is only then that the minister realises how much the pain of his son’s death has overshadowed his life, and the lives of everyone in Bomont. After a struggle with his conscience, he announces to his parishioners that he has had a change of heart; that, in fact a dance might be a good idea.

And so, for the first time in years, the young people of Bomont are able to dance freely and as everyone joins in, the evening finally becomes not only a celebration, but also an ecstatic expression of healing. They dared to dance and “Everybody Cut Footloose!”