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Oct 06, 2013 By Shawn Hazelett Web Exclusive

Joining Girls and Frances Ha in the young-artist-moving-to-New York zeitgeist is Five Dances, a film about the world of downtown Manhattan dance. The story focuses a five-person dance company and its newest member, Chip (Ryan Steele), a gifted, Kansas import who has just moved to the city at the age of 18. He comes off painfully shy and guarded, perhaps the result of a domineering mother who calls to remind him that she doesn’t approve of his lifestyle; he’s gay and seems to have been conditioned to withhold any form of self-expression. But he strikes a friendship with a fellow dancer named Katie and starts to open up, revealing a funny, charming personality. He begins exchanging a few looks with a handsome dancer and before long the ex-Red Stater finds himself in a group of like-minded people where he is allowed to thrive.

Had the film maintained this trajectory it could have been something special. The narrative gets lost in a second act that meanders scene-to-scene, all but abandoning its tender coming-of-age story for several dance scenes that-while beautifully choreographed-feel too divorced from the plot. But then, the plot never exceeds its premise. Chip’s ascent through the company will eventually rival him with his crush, but all the inherent conflict goes unexplored. A strange attempt to heighten the drama with an affair between a choreographer and a dancer feels ill-timed and melodramatic. At times the plot seems to exist merely to string together all these dance scenes.

The cast-made up of entirely of professional, New York dancers-lend a feeling of authenticity to the film and their characters. They inhabit a struggling artist’s New York of chipped-paint apartments and homemade frittata, and the film clearly understands the world of dance and what it means to be a struggling artist. Unfortunately, Five Dances feels more interested in the art than the artist.

www.fivedancesthemovie.com

Author rating: 4.5/10