Queerly Ever After #52: FIVE DANCES (2013)

Queerly Ever After is a bi-monthly column where I take a look at LGBT+ films that gave their characters a romantic happily-ever-after. There will be spoilers. Also, don’t forget to buy your Queerly Ever After merch right here.

Five Dances opens on a young man, Chip (Ryan Steele), dancing alone in a rehearsal room. The camera follows him as he lithely glides through the movements. This is our protagonist. Chip is an 18-year-old man who recently who recently moved to New York City from his home in the Midwest, leaving behind his alcoholic mother. He gets cast by choreographer Anthony (Luke Murphy) for an upcoming dance performance. The film follows the rehearsal process for Chip, Anthony, and the other three dancers: Theo (Reed Luplau), Katie (Catherine Miller), and Cynthia (Kimiye Corwin).

It is apparent from the get-go that writer/director Alan Brown (who also wrote and directed Private Romeo) loves dance. He doesn’t bother with overly fancy camerawork to move around the dancers but, instead often uses static or tracking shots to follow them. It is apparent he cast professional dancers in his film, so he never needed to use cinematic tricks to make a body double look like the actor. The film is interspersed with five choreographed dance pieces performed by the five-person cast. At first, I thought each dance piece would almost act as a new chapter in the film, underscoring the emotional beats and plot points that have just, or are about to, unfold. By the third dance, it became apparent that while the pieces themselves pertained to the movie in the sense that it is a movie about dance, they didn’t have any particular significance to the other events of the movie that I could discern.

Alone in New York

On his own for the first time since leaving home, Chip has nowhere to stay. He was recently kicked out of the apartment he’d been staying in and now finds shelter in the dance studio where he rehearses. One morning, Katie arrives at the studio earlier than normal to find Chip still asleep in his sleeping bag. Katie, who seems like the mother of the group, immediately offers Chip a place to crash on her couch until he can get on his feet.

As the troupe continues rehearsing, Chip and fellow dancer Theo are partnered up on a particularly difficult routine. Staying late one night to rehearse, things become heated and the two men begin to kiss. But, Chip has definitely not yet become comfortable with his sexuality and he runs off. Being young and inexperienced, this causes some awkward tension the next day at rehearsal, with Chip unable to properly focus on the moves because he is preoccupied with his thoughts about Theo. Eventually, he gives in to his desire and the two begin a relationship.

Mommy Dearest

While Chip is grappling with his sexual identity and trying to make it as a dancer, his mother consistently calls to pester him to move back home. As mentioned before, she is an alcoholic, but she is also disapproving of not only what Chip wants to do with his life, but his homosexuality, which she does insinuate she knows about.

Through her barrage of phone calls, she tries to manipulate him into coming home to take care of her. She claims simultaneously that if he doesn’t return, she will lose her house, while also telling him that she will throw out all his things unless he comes back. She’s not winning any mother of the year awards, that’s for sure.

In Conclusion: Five Dances

While the plot is not the most revolutionary, and the film at times feels slight, the dancing is absolutely wonderful to watch. Steele, for whom this was his feature film, and acting, debut, certainly knows how to convey emotion through his facial expressions. Whether he will continue acting in the future or will just stick to dance, he was perfectly cast here.

Five Dances came out in the USA on October 4, 2013. For all other release dates, see here.