The Golden Globes LOVED La La Land—and Dance
When it comes to awards shows, the Golden Globes is not one we tend to associate with dance—unlike the Emmys, there is no award for best choreography, and the format tends to be a bit more relaxed than the Oscars or the Tonys, where musical performances are fairly typical. So the cold open of last night’s telecast was a delightful surprise. The five-minute intro was a tongue-in-cheek tribute to La La Land, the dance-centric, Mandy Moore–choreographed film that is itself a tribute to old-school movie musicals.
And if that weren’t exciting enough, La La Land didn’t just snag a couple of trophies: It took home seven out of the seven awards for which it was nominated, shattering the record (that has stood since 1970) for most Golden Globes awarded to a single film—and if there was a best choreography category, the film may very well have snagged an eighth. Nevertheless, the dancing created by Moore for the film is so beautifully, inextricably intertwined with the plot and character development that we can’t help but think of La La Land‘s success as a win for dance in popular culture.
Hollywood and the dance world have had something of a tempestuous relationship in the past several years. But with dancers like Misty Copeland and Sergei Polunin infiltrating the cultural consciousness outside of the ballet world (and snagging film roles themselves), and dance-centric movie musicals like La La Land, could we be seeing a positive shift in dance’s role in mainstream storytelling? Only time will tell, but I for one am game for a resurgence of the Fred and Ginger era (or even the Baryshnikov-getting-nominated-for-an-Oscar era).
Check out the Golden Globes opening below, which has everything from celebrities (and Storm Troopers) recreating La La Land‘s opening traffic jam dance party on the red carpet to Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon waltzing in the stars (à la Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in the movie). And if you haven’t already, do yourself a favor: see La La Land.
