It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that all of my favorite TV moments have something to do with singing, dancing, and gay couples (can you say “Sway” and “Jazz hands”?). As this realization hit me at 2.30am on a Monday, I sat down to list the four most touching dances my laptop has ever been graced with.
4. Beautiful Thing (Ending) – Jamie & Ste
Soundtrack: Dream a Little Dream – Mama Cass
Beautiful Thing is a quiet little anecdote, a love affair between two young British men whose lives are both common and complicated. It’s not a perfect movie, and far from the best gay movie I have seen, but there’s something brave and daring about its focus on the coming-of-age stories of both protagonists. Amidst the loud, drug-hazy noises of lives, families, and friends, moments of solace and connection between Jamie and Ste somehow grace this movie not just with adequacy, but honesty and optimism. Their slow dance in the courtyard at the end of the movie carries the exact message of the movie. Next to these short moments of embrace, confusion, distance, even the future, matters very little. Just dream a little dream of me.
3. Torchwood (1.12) – Captain Jack Harkness & Captain Jack Harkness
Soundtrack: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASEwZcqb6ow
Torchwood is about a group of humans and the immortal Captain Jack Harkness who try to save the world while stumbling all over the place. In Episode 12 of Season 1, we learn that our Captain stole his name from a real Jack Harkness when a time rift brings our protagonist back in time to the night before his namesake is killed in battle (I’m not really sure if the two-sentence summary of the entire sci-fi series is doing you any good, but I’m just going to go ahead, okay?). The real Jack, of course, has no idea about his fate, and was encourage by, let’s just call our main character the Face of Boe for now, to live tonight like his last night on Earth. So Jack takes his advice, leaves his lady, and dances. Then, OF COURSE, the time rift opens and Boe is ripped away back to the present in an explosion of light. Jack’s afterimage fades.
2. Glee (2.10) – Blaine & Kurt
Soundtrack: Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Chris Colfer & Darren Criss
I am not going to lie. One, there isn’t a two-sentence summary for Glee, hell, there isn’t a paragraph-long summary for Glee. Two, I had this song stuck in my head for months after it was broadcast. More than the record-breaking single “Teenage Dream” (the only Glee Cast single certified Gold in the U.S., save for the show’s anthem “Don’t Stop Believing” performed twice) when Kurt meets Blaine (although, truth be told, I squeed like a fangirl when that happened), more than the hand holding, (spoiler alert) kissing, making eyes across coffee cups and whatever it is teenagers do, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” warms my heart in its sweet, romantic, adorable way (and I quote Chris Colfer, “It was hot, I know”). That’s what I like about Kurt and Blaine, actually, their disregard for gender roles (Kurt insists on singing “Defying Gravity” and Blaine bursts out into Beyoncé like it’s his job), their blatant and unapologetic romanticism (look at that little chase around the piano bench and the eye rolling), but most of all, the pure pleasure of singing and being together that is somehow sincere, corny, and endearing, all at the same time.
1. Queer as Folk (1.22) – Brian & Justin
Soundtrack: Save the Last Dance for Me – The Drifters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRg-1W5sVMc
Speaking of blatant and unapologetic, there isn’t a show more daring and naked than Queer as Folk when it comes to gay life (and I mean that in every sense of the word *cough*). Queer as Folk has the kind of unflinching bite that keeps its viewers on their toes through one-night stands, HIV scares, real HIVs, pregnancies, prostitutions, law suits, hate crimes, explosions (yes I’m serious), and somehow, the entire time, love. The spotlight of the show shines on Brian and Justin and their “non-defined, non-traditional” relationship. This dance during the final moments of season 1 captures the essence of this couple completely:
You can dance
Ev’ry dance with the guy
Who gives you the eye
Let him hold you tight
You can smile
Ev’ry smile for the man who held your hand
‘Neath the pale moonlight
But don’t forget who’s taking you home
And in whose arms you’re gonna be
So darlin’, save the last dance for me
Brighton (“Bri-tin”), as Justin himself names them, is exactly that. They would swing, laugh, and flirt, and at the end of the measure Justin would turn back and Brian would catch him, solid and unwavering.
