When movie magic meets fancy footwork, cinematic history is made! Join us as we count down the most incredible dance sequences where actors showcased their moves against jaw-dropping set designs. From Fred Astaire defying gravity to Ryan Gosling's beach ballad, these performances blend choreography and production design in unforgettable ways!
00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today, we're counting down our picks for the scenes that saw our favorite stars dancing across some of Hollywood's most impressive sets.
00:18Number 10, Fight the Power, Do the Right Thing.
00:36Rosie Perez made her film debut in Spike Lee's hard-hitting 1989 masterpiece.
00:42She's actually the first performer we see in Do the Right Thing.
00:44The former soul-trained dancer exhibits her skills while Public Enemy's Fight the Power blasts on the soundtrack.
00:55Her routine is framed against a large projection of sights around the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where the movie takes place.
01:01Throughout her dance, the buildings behind Perez are cast in different colored gel lights.
01:06It actually changes the entire way the same unmoving photos look.
01:10It's a technically simple setup, but it's really effective on screen.
01:14Everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be, fight the power.
01:21Number 9, Gutterballs, The Big Lebowski.
01:26I pushed my soul in a deep, dark hole, and then I followed it.
01:33Starring as The Dude, Jeff Bridges gave life to an instantly iconic character.
01:37This guy gives new meaning to the word chill.
01:40After being drugged by some evil henchman, the dude dreams of an extended dance sequence inspired by his one true love, bowling.
01:47We're treated to surreal images like rows of bowling shoes leading up to a full moon, a checkerboard staircase, and showgirls with bowling pin headpieces.
01:55Someone painted a full moon, and fit black letters on the D-D-D-San.
02:04Julianne Moore's Viking get-up is just an added bonus of unhinged hilarity.
02:08Bridges, goofy smile, and loose moves tie it all together.
02:12What does it all mean?
02:13Bowling is life, man.
02:14Yeah!
02:16Bowling, yeah!
02:18We've just been introduced, I do not know you well, but when the music started, something drew me to your side.
02:36Anna Leonowens teaches the stern King Monkut how to dance the polka.
02:40Shall We Dance is incredibly romantic and sumptuous to the eye.
02:43The two are connecting on an intimate level, surrounded by the overwhelming beauty of the king's fully realized palace.
02:50As Deborah Carr and Yul Brynner sweep across the Great Hall, the camera pans and tilts with them so we can also take in the enormous room.
03:07Designed to look incredible and elegant in CinemaScope, the set is a marvel.
03:11With its golden columns, delicate statues, and choreo-friendly flooring, it's both a perfect performance space and a nod to Thailand's history.
03:30Number 7. 42nd Street. 42nd Street.
03:34Please, those dancing feet on the avenue, I'm taking you to 42nd Street.
03:42Busby Berkeley was a legendary director and choreographer of the classic Hollywood period.
03:47His dance numbers were known for playing with perspective and geometric shapes.
03:51His choreography for the title number of 42nd Street is a masterstroke.
03:56Stars Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell join an ensemble of dancers to perform multiple dramatic urban scenes
04:01that play out across the impossibly elaborate New York City Street.
04:11Forced perspective and editing tricks account for the enormity of the set.
04:15It's clearly on a soundstage instead of a theater stage, but it's a feast for the eyes anyway.
04:33He had it coming. He had it coming. He only had himself to play.
04:40Like most of this best picture winning musical, this number straddles the line between reality and fantasy.
04:46Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as Velma Kelly, one of the six merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail.
04:51Cell Block Tango sees the inmates narrating the circumstances that landed them behind bars.
04:56In the fantastical performance space, they dance in the shadow and lights of a stage.
05:01The dirty bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
05:05The dirty bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
05:08They had it coming. They had it coming.
05:10They had it coming.
05:11As their dances of death pick up force, the blending of the prison cell iconography
05:16and the glitz of showbiz is twisted and completely perfect.
05:20The imagery of slinky silhouettes framed by hot red lights became a defining image of the movie.
05:25When you're gonna sing, when you're gonna sing, I bet you you would have done the same.
05:30Number 5. Dancing Through Life. Oz Dust Ballroom. Wicked.
05:35Dancing through life. Swaying and sweeping.
05:38And always keeping cool.
05:43From its very first trip to the big screen,
05:45The Wizard of Oz has put its actors through the paces when it comes to dancing through fantastical environments.
05:50The Wiz had stars Diana Ross and Michael Jackson prancing across a surreal landscape inspired by New York City.
05:56The beloved 2024 musical adaptation has Jonathan Bailey dancing through life
06:01in the gorgeously ornate Shiz University Library.
06:03Co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande then share a devastating duet at the cavernous, crystalline Oz Dust Ballroom.
06:10The entire sequence packs a huge punch largely because of the way the actors are interacting with the very real spaces.
06:28While enhanced by computer-generated imagery, the sets are not green-screened in.
06:33While you're dancing through...
06:40Number 4. I'm Just Ken, Barbie.
06:47Doesn't seem to matter what I do.
06:52I'm always number two.
06:54Ryan Gosling scored an Oscar nomination for his role as Ken, the living doll who craves Barbie's attention.
07:01He really delivers in this well-deserved five-minute dance-slash-battle sequence with all the other Kens on their beloved beach.
07:08I'm Just Ken is an 80s power ballad about how hard it is to be, well, Ken.
07:12It showcases Gosling, a great song, and the incredible practical sets and miniature models of Barbie.
07:19Showing the dream houses and plastic plants, pink sand, and impossibly blue water,
07:24the song is the perfect excuse to showcase the design team's work.
07:28Is it a crowd? Am I not in hot?
07:30Well, I'm in my feelings.
07:34The whole sequence finishes with a group dance in an unreal blue and pink dream space.
07:38Baby, come on!
07:40Come on!
07:41Come on!
07:42I'm just Ken!
07:46Number 3.
07:47Ballet sequence.
07:48The Red Shoes.
07:59This opulent melodrama is about a ballet dancer torn between two loves, a man and her career.
08:05Directed by the legendary British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emmerich Pressburger,
08:09The Red Shoes stages her conflict through a fairytale ballet instead of dialogue.
08:24But the climax isn't just a film stage performance.
08:27The movie instead takes us through a lush dance sequence, designed to illustrate the character's subconscious.
08:33Star Moira Shearer was trained as a ballerina.
08:36As a result, she was able to do her own dancing through all the expressionistic and often liminal set pieces.
08:42Clocking in at over 15 minutes, the ballet of The Red Shoes is still spellbinding.
08:47You're all places that leave me breathless, and no wonder you're all the world to me.
09:06Fred Astaire was one of Hollywood's greatest dancers.
09:10As a result, he always had to top himself.
09:13In 1951's Royal Wedding, he somehow defied gravity.
09:17The set he's dancing in seems unremarkable when you look at it.
09:20It's only when Astaire starts dancing up the walls and on the ceiling that you realize it's anything but unremarkable.
09:26The set was built in a large box that was then rotated on an axis, allowing Astaire to just follow the gravity.
09:41With the camera moving with the set, it appears that only the performer is in motion.
09:46This setup is so incredible, it's still being referenced today.
09:50Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
10:00Hello Dolly, Hello Dolly, Barbara Streisand dines out in style.
10:04I hear them twinkle, I see them twinkle.
10:11Get Down Saturday Night, Ex Machina.
10:14Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno trip the neon light fantastic.
10:20I've got to hear that beat, Small Town Girl.
10:28Ann Miller dances past the band's disembodied limbs.
10:40Hindi's sad diamonds, Moulin Rouge.
10:43Nicole Kidman and co-stars perform their big show's opening number.
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11:12Number 1, The Ballet, An American in Paris.
11:24The artists behind this classic musical look to its French setting for inspiration.
11:28Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron's climactic ballet sees the two powering through a demanding routine.
11:34They make it look effortless.
11:35What makes the sequence so special is that it plays out against detailed and artful backdrops inspired by the country's most legendary landmarks and artists.
11:44Their romantic duet of movement plays out against and even between the massive set pieces.
11:49At 17 minutes, the scene is a marvel.
11:59Costing nearly half a million dollars to produce, a huge amount in 1951,
12:04it's the perfect encapsulation of what made the classic era great.
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