Top 10 Dance Scenes That Defined Cinema

MsMojo

These dance scenes defined cinema! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the most important dance sequences in film history.

Transcript

00:00 "Gotta dance, gotta dance, gotta"

00:06 Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we'll be looking at the most important dance sequences

00:11 in film history.

00:12 "I can show you a good time"

00:20 Number 10.

00:22 You're the one that I want.

00:24 Grease.

00:25 "Sand it."

00:26 "Tell me about it."

00:29 "Stuck."

00:30 From the moment Dani sees Sandy and her new greaser girl get up at the end of the movie,

00:35 cinema history is made.

00:37 "Meditate my direction, feel your way"

00:45 Most of the choreography in You're the One That I Want consists of Olivia Newton-John

00:49 strutting around and John Travolta slithering along after her, with a couple of whoops and

00:54 hollers along the way.

00:56 The chemistry between the two leads, paired with their iconic hip-swaying walk at the

01:00 end has inspired many a copy over the years.

01:03 Still, no homage will ever beat the exhilaration of the original.

01:07 "You're the one that I want, you are the one that I want"

01:11 "I'm the one, I am the one"

01:16 Number 9.

01:17 Jump and Jive, Stormy Weather.

01:19 You've heard of Fred Astaire, you've heard of Gene Kelly, but two of the most prolific

01:24 tap dancers of the golden age of Hollywood were the Nicholas Brothers.

01:38 Fayard and Harold Nicholas were some of the best dancers of their day, but because they

01:42 were African American, they never got as much recognition as their white colleagues in the

01:46 field.

01:47 With that said, Stormy Weather has a performance from the duo that simply can't be ignored.

01:59 Jump and Jive is an acrobatic, energetic flash dance for the ages.

02:04 With this number, which some consider to be the best dance ever committed to the screen,

02:08 the Nicholas Brothers changed the game and inspired so many.

02:21 Number 8.

02:22 You Should Be Dancing, Saturday Night Fever.

02:25 In the late 1970s, you couldn't get more famous than John Travolta.

02:30 Before Greece '78, he had another runaway hit with Saturday Night Fever.

02:42 Travolta boogieing along to Night Fever will forever be implanted in our memories, but

02:46 nothing beats his solo performance to You Should Be Dancing.

02:50 In this sequence, Travolta takes the floor by himself with a fun disco routine.

03:00 Travolta's moves, the twinkling lights, and the mesmerizing colors create a performance

03:08 that's impossible to tear your eyes away from.

03:10 The movie itself is great, but Travolta and his dancing skills make it iconic.

03:22 Number 7.

03:23 I've Had the Time of My Life, Dirty Dancing.

03:27 Nobody puts Baby in a corner, and nobody performs a partner dance quite like Baby and Johnny.

03:39 Dirty Dancing is one of the prime dancing movies of the 1980s, and there are plenty

03:49 of great sequences to showcase just that.

03:51 The one that still remains just as magical today is the final dance to I've Had the Time

03:56 of My Life.

04:13 Throughout most of the film, the music that's played diegetically is from the 1960s.

04:18 This song, however, is all 80s.

04:21 By extension, the scene feels almost like a fairy tale or fantasy of epic romantic proportions.

04:27 Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze have amazing chemistry, and the Dirty Dancing lift has

04:32 gone down in history as one of the best.

04:48 Number 6.

04:50 Ceiling Dance, Royal Wedding.

04:52 Throughout his long, illustrious career, Fred Astaire came up with a lot of innovative ways

04:57 to show the art of dance on screen.

05:00 His decisions about how choreography would be filmed differed greatly from the Busby

05:04 Berkeley musicals that were popular at the time.

05:12 One of his most innovative decisions, however, came with the filming of 1951's Royal Wedding.

05:18 In it, Astaire's character gets so excited that he dances on the ceiling.

05:26 Literally.

05:35 The scene was shot with Astaire in a rolling barrel set to give the illusion of dancing

05:40 on the walls and ceiling.

05:42 It was an extraordinarily original idea at the time, inspiring countless creatives in

05:47 the decades since.

06:02 Number 5.

06:03 The Ballet, The Red Shoes.

06:06 The innovation of how ballet is used in film has evolved over the years.

06:10 One of the most important films in its evolution is 1948's The Red Shoes.

06:24 From the amazing film team of Michael Powell and Emerick Pressburger, The Red Shoes follows

06:29 a ballerina named Victoria Page who must choose between love and her career.

06:34 The film includes a 17-minute long ballet sequence that's filled with symbolic visuals

06:39 and metaphors for the story that unfolds.

06:52 While some critics at the time found that the ballet wasn't realistic, the film's

06:56 stature as one of the best of all time has only grown since its release.

07:01 The beauty of this particular sequence is a large part of that.

07:11 Number 4.

07:12 The Aloof, The Heavyweight, The Big Finish.

07:15 Sweet Charity.

07:26 Bob Fosse is one of the most innovative musical directors and creators of the latter half

07:31 of the 20th century.

07:33 His work began in earnest in the 1950s with stage musicals like Damn Yankees.

07:38 Meanwhile, some of his best work can be found in numbers such as Take Off With Us and All

07:43 That Jazz.

07:44 Perhaps his most important piece of choreography, however, came from his first feature film

07:50 in Sweet Charity.

07:58 In The Aloof, The Heavyweight, The Big Finish, we see Fosse's choreography completely untempered

08:03 by a different director or other ideas.

08:07 It's pure Fosse through and through and just the beginning of his time as an auteur.

08:21 Number 3.

08:22 Mambo, West Side Story.

08:25 Choreography can do so many things in a film.

08:28 When it comes to 1961's West Side Story, it's the main driver of the story.

08:44 Directed by Robert Wise and choreography Jerome Robbins, every single dance sequence in the

08:49 film is immaculately staged and shot.

08:52 We'll never get over the swirling euphoria of America, but the dance at the gym is an

08:57 absolute masterpiece.

09:10 Wise and Robbins take us through so many different parts, from the mambo back and forth between

09:15 the Jets and the Sharks to Maria and Tony's love at first sight moment.

09:19 It's a gorgeous feat of storytelling through dance and perhaps hasn't been replicated

09:24 yet.

09:33 Number 2.

09:34 An American in Paris, An American in Paris.

09:43 Gene Kelly and the words "Dream Ballet" are just about synonymous when it comes to 1950's

09:48 musicals.

09:49 The one we probably think of the most is from the 1952 masterpiece Singing in the Rain,

09:54 but Kelly's most ambitious endeavor came a year earlier in the Vincent Minelli directed

09:59 An American in Paris.

10:11 The delightfully colorful film ends with a 17 minute decadent dream ballet.

10:16 The sets are extravagant, mimicking the works of French artists like Henri Rousseau, Pierre

10:21 Auguste Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.

10:23 Meanwhile, Kelly's choreography is a stunning mix of genres and the dancers perform it beautifully.

10:40 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

10:44 Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

10:46 Gentlemen prefer blondes.

10:48 Never has an outfit had such staying power.

11:01 Jailhouse Rock, Jailhouse Rock.

11:04 Elvis' most famous musical sequence.

11:21 Warehouse Dance, Footloose.

11:23 Kevin Bacon invented the solo strut through a warehouse.

11:40 The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat, The Gang's All Here.

11:44 The Busby Berkeley Experience at its finest.

12:01 Studio Duet, White Night.

12:03 A duet between two masters of the dance world.

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12:34 Number 1.

12:36 Singing in the Rain, Singing in the Rain.

12:50 Throughout his long career, Gene Kelly made it a point to try new things when it came

12:54 to committing dance to the screen.

12:57 As far back as 1945, he was dancing with a cartoon mouse in Anchors Away, pre-dating

13:02 Mary Poppins by almost 20 years.

13:05 The most iconic, long-lasting image of Kelly is also one of his simplest.

13:17 In the titular number of Singing in the Rain, Kelly proves that all you need to create an

13:22 unforgettable dance number are some puddles and a beaming smile.

13:26 Kelly exudes pure charm and joy in this dance number, splashing his way to our hearts and

13:31 creating one of the most indelible images of American cinema.

13:48 Which dance scene do you think had the biggest impact on cinema history?

13:52 Let us know in the comments!

13:59 Do you agree with our picks?

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