MOVIE | Five Dances (2013)

Five Dances (2013)

In the movie "Five Dances", we witness how the budding romance of Chip and Theo evolved from mere dance partners into something more serious. Chip is a dance prodigy under the scholarship of the studio's dance instructor while Theo, though not much is said about his character seemed to be well off as we learn that he is from Australia who is now living in New York.

But Chip (the main character) brings with him several baggage, among them his dysfunctional parents who seemed quite unstable, compounded with the fact that Chip has to fend for himself and basically homeless (how he ever survived in New York still baffles me). But it was his sheer determination that pushed him to chase after his passion. It was not very clear what he really wanted to do or achieve, but it was apparent that he was en route to some sort of public performance.

It was perhaps Chip's self denial that he was attracted to men, which made it uncomfortable for him to really connect with the character of Theo. But as we would see later, he made peace with himself and embraced the fact that he was indeed sexually attracted to men.

The sequence after Chip and Theo came to terms with their mutual attraction made the dance choreo even more sultry and erotic, like chocolate melting in our mouth; or like sunset on a clear afternoon - which surely makes one tear up as we hear the song tracks of Gem Club, Perfume Genius and Scott Matthew.

Here's a clip of "Five Dances",



What Chip had to go through is a typical struggle of the closeted man - repressed and often lacking support from family. But more difficult was the fact that Chip was poor and that he had to support himself, even live homeless while in New York just because he wanted to chase after his dream.

What struck me though was the fact that Chip found love in his colleague; seemed very invested in him. And he even let go of his inhibitions and fear of being gay, just to admit to Theo that was in love with him. Despite this, Theo seemed  to be living in the moment and does not come across as someone who will hold on long the relationship.

For the longest time, I have held on to my assumption that gay relationships (especially those built from sex) do not generally last longer than three months. If it ever does cross three months, wait until six and it is game over. The maximum duration of a gay relationship is 1 to 1.5 years. Why, well there's really no compelling data to support this but based on what I observe. This is especially true to the younger generations whose relationships revolve around online or social apps, take Grindr or Blued for example.

Of course, this may or may not be true for everyone. But the fact remains, gay romantic relationships are complicated.

PINOY IN THE CITY: 4 / 5 | IMDB: 7 / 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 55%