On Tempo: Your Favorite Dance Scenes in Queer Cinema

As François Ozon’s coming-of-age queer romance, Summer of 85, continues its run in our theaters and the ’80s inspired soundtrack echoed through the Walter Reade Theater, we couldn’t help but notice how much dance sequences reveal about the characters of our favorite films. In celebration of Pride Month and the opening night of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2021 selection, we asked the FLC community for their favorite dance scenes in queer cinema.

Many of you mentioned the ending of Claire Denis’ Beau Travail, featuring a cathartic sequence from Denis Lavant set to Corona’s ‘Rhythm of the Night,’ the iconic kitchen tango from Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together, and a multitude of scenes from Levan Akin’s And Then We Danced. Scroll down below to see the full collection of your responses!

Film at Lincoln Center is proud to celebrate and share the voices and work of our LGBTQ+ community. As Pride Month continues, explore our growing Queer Filmmakers Portal for content and resources celebrating queer voices in cinema.

As we head into the weekend, see what’s playing and coming soon to our theaters and the FLC Virtual Cinema and join our online community on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Letterboxd, and don’t miss a thing by subscribing to the weekly newsletter.

That one on the top left is pretty 🔥 #summerof85 https://t.co/Wa8sw5qoIm
— Music Box Films (@musicboxfilms) June 18, 2021

https://twitter.com/adam_fox79/status/1406056339479093248

https://twitter.com/thom_fork/status/1405957616623263745

Maedchen in Uniform! And the @KinoLorber restored re-release is now on Blu-ray and playing on @criterionchannl (with my audio commentary!) pic.twitter.com/YjzAH9qEPd
— Jenni Olson (@JenniOlsonSF) June 18, 2021

Dominic West’s dance from Pride. https://t.co/IZmVuwXHNR
— Transmission Rory (@TransmissionRor) June 18, 2021

The dance to Canto Siboney (Ernesto Lacuona, 1927) in Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963) with Sheila Bick, Joel Markman, Tony Conrad and Mario Montez. pic.twitter.com/iSJ13uzmp6
— Dale Edwin Wittig (@ArteBarrato) June 18, 2021

pic.twitter.com/K2czgzwK7P
— Cinema Guild (@CinemaGuild) June 18, 2021

Happy Together, Wong Kar-wai, 1997 pic.twitter.com/eZQIW4DiAj
— Emily Dickinson (@DickinsEmily) June 18, 2021

https://twitter.com/sunnikoufax/status/1405957529843257344

And Then We Danced (2019). Easy answer(s). https://t.co/8PxekxMp7D pic.twitter.com/5iNL20MUj7
— Yechiel⁷ (@TheYechiel) June 18, 2021

https://t.co/iTEyVEsuL8 pic.twitter.com/LwO23T1BtZ
— Doğan Emre🫀 (@doganemreilgar) June 18, 2021

Do you have more suggestions to add to the list? Share with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and stay tuned for more conversations on cinema.