Dance in Film · 2016
La La Land (2016)
Modern musical with Waltz and Foxtrot-inspired partner work set against the Los Angeles jazz scene.
La La Land is a 2016 dance musical centred on American Smooth, Musical Theatre Dance, Tap Dance. For dancers, it's a chance to see these styles performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
Jump to the 7 indexed dance sequences ↓
Dance styles featured
Where to watch: Streaming (various)
Trailer
Official trailer.
The dance sequences in La La Land
7 sequences, 7 with a timestamp — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
Danced by Reshma Gajjar; freeway ensemble · Choreography Mandy Moore
The moving shot threading between car roofs as an entire traffic jam becomes a dance floor.
Reshma Gajjar rises from a stalled car and pulls the camera down the traffic lane until dancers are landing on roofs, vaulting between vehicles and opening Jerome Robbins-like arm shapes across the interchange. When the ensemble folds back into separate cars, the same freeway that looked like a stage snaps into ordinary gridlock around Mia and Sebastian.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 128-minute La.La.Land.2016.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT reference; commercial editions may shift.
Danced by Emma Stone; Callie Hernandez; Sonoya Mizuno; Jessica Rothe; party ensemble · Choreography Mandy Moore
The four roommates marching into the night in four saturated dresses before the party plunges toward the pool.
Mia's roommates turn getting dressed into a color-coded relay, with red, yellow and green dresses crossing rooms before Emma Stone's blue-dressed Mia finally joins their line on the street. The number then isolates Mia at the mirror and slows the crowded house around her before the poolside chorus erupts, making her loneliness visible inside the party's choreography.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. 128-minute La.La.Land.2016.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT reference; commercial editions may shift.
Danced by Emma Stone; Ryan Gosling · Choreography Mandy Moore
Stone and Gosling tapping in silhouette against the violet sky, then freezing when the phone rings.
Emma Stone changes from heels into flats before Mia and Sebastian test each other with matching toe taps, bench hops and deliberately unimpressed glances on the asphalt above Los Angeles. The unbroken dusk take lets their call-and-response footwork betray attraction even while the lyric insists that romance is impossible, until Mia's ringtone breaks the spell.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. 128-minute La.La.Land.2016.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT reference; commercial editions may shift.
- 00:46:56
City of Stars — Hermosa Beach pier
Danced by Ryan Gosling; older pier couple · Choreography Mandy Moore
Sebastian borrowing an older couple for one dreamy turn before whistling down the pier.
Ryan Gosling lets Sebastian's uncertain whistle and small traveling steps carry him alone along the Hermosa Beach pier after Mia accepts his movie invitation. His brief turn with an older couple makes the empty boardwalk answer his private hope, then releases him to continue toward the water by himself.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. 128-minute La.La.Land.2016.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT reference; commercial editions may shift.
Danced by Emma Stone; Ryan Gosling · Choreography Mandy Moore
The couple floating through the stars while preserving the shape of a ballroom hold.
Mia and Sebastian first circle the Foucault pendulum in a grounded closed hold, carrying the orbiting image from the observatory floor into the planetarium. After Mia's shoes lift, their waltz loses gravity but not its partner axis: they rotate through projected constellations and descend together into adjoining seats for the kiss.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 128-minute La.La.Land.2016.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT reference; commercial editions may shift.
- 00:59:29
Summer montage — Angels Flight and Lighthouse Café
Danced by Emma Stone; Ryan Gosling · Choreography Mandy Moore
The lovers slipping into a dance on Angels Flight and Mia dancing for Sebastian at the Lighthouse.
The SUMMER card releases Mia and Sebastian into postcard Los Angeles, culminating in a tipsy partner dance on the sloping Angels Flight platform rather than a formal stage. At the Lighthouse Café, Emma Stone's Mia dances beside Sebastian's piano and tosses looks toward Ryan Gosling, letting their private game continue inside the public jam session.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 128-minute La.La.Land.2016.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT reference; commercial editions may shift.
Danced by Emma Stone; Ryan Gosling; restaurant and soundstage ensembles · Choreography Mandy Moore
The final dance through a painted Paris that compresses the life Mia and Sebastian never shared.
Sebastian's imagined kiss cues the restaurant patrons to swivel and snap in unison, opening an alternate life through choreography instead of dialogue. Painted Paris flats then give Mia and Sebastian one last poised partner dance before the fantasy converts their future into home-movie fragments and returns them to the real club.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 128-minute La.La.Land.2016.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT reference; commercial editions may shift.
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