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From classic tap to intense ballet and electrifying hip-hop, these actors pushed their limits mastering complex dance routines for unforgettable roles. Watch as we highlight performances where dedication met drama, turning tough choreography into iconic moments. Whether it was months of training or a crash course in rhythm, their commitment to dance brought authenticity and magic to the big screen. Get ready to be inspired by their impressive journeys!
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00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today, we're counting down our picks for the most impressive dance
00:11scenes led by actors who required extra rehearsal.
00:14This is, I think this is the hardest dance number I ever did, from Chitty Bang Bang,
00:19was me old Bamboo.
00:22Number 20, Shirley Temple, The Little Colonel.
00:25At just six years old, Shirley Temple was already an accomplished leading lady and dancer.
00:41But she'd have to literally step up her game with tap-tighten Bilbo Jangles Robinson in The Little Colonel.
00:48He personally trained her for the Butler Walker's elaborate staircase dance to escort Lloyd Sherman to bed.
00:53Robinson was amazed by how quickly Young Temple picked up focusing on the rhythm of tap, rather than the footwork.
01:09The final sequence is a true technical marvel, but that's not the only reason why it's so iconic.
01:15The largest feat of The Little Colonel is that it features the first Hollywood dance sequence with interracial partners.
01:21Plus, Robinson and Temple forged a timeless friendship over his firm, yet fun, training methods.
01:27I'd like to go upstairs that way.
01:29You sure learn fast.
01:31Now tomorrow, I'll show you some more steps.
01:34Good night, Ms. Lloyd.
01:35Good night.
01:36Number 19, Richard Gere, Shall We Dance.
01:40There was much work to be done for him to prepare for John Clark's introduction to the ballroom in 2004's
01:45Shall We Dance.
01:46It's a workout, man.
01:47I would be, yeah, it was like a boxer's workout, which is the hardest workout I had before I did
01:53this.
01:53But two, three hours of doing all the dances, quick step waltz and the Latin dances and all.
02:00It is a major workout.
02:01A tango routine with the one and only Jennifer Lopez was particularly daunting.
02:06So while the main cast trained together with Gary McDonald, he also held private sessions with gear that would run
02:12up to eight hours.
02:18The actor opted to keep them confidential to help him also get into character.
02:23The hard work paid off, as Clark's secret evolution from beginner to competitive dancer is as convincing as it is
02:29moving.
02:40Number 18, Emma Stone, La La Land.
02:44The golden age of entertainment gave us some of the most iconic dance routines in movie history.
02:57What kind of genuine tribute would La La Land be without working in tap?
03:01For a while, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were rehearsing separately, possibly because of their different levels of dance experience.
03:08Stone admitted it felt like a mind game, hearing how well her co-star was doing while she struggled to
03:14just get the basics down.
03:15And I would say every day, how's Ryan doing?
03:18And I'd be like, oh, he's amazing.
03:22He's doing really well.
03:24He's exceeding our expectations.
03:26You're doing the same thing to me.
03:28We'll be talking about that later.
03:30So for about two months, I just thought he was the most, you know, incredible dancer of all time and
03:34I was failing miserably.
03:36But once they were finally in the room together, she suddenly felt a lot better about her own skills.
03:42Their routine for a lovely night might not tap circles around Astaire and Rogers,
03:46but their authentic spirit and chemistry bring whimsy to their technique.
04:06The intense psychological and romantic drama of Silver Linings Playbook came to a head with a genre-bending competitive dance
04:13routine.
04:21Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence had to nail it, though it may have benefited from the actor's complete lack of
04:27dance training.
04:28Bradley is a really great dancer and I am not.
04:32So I felt really bad for him because he would get it instantly and I'd be like, well, I'll see
04:38you on the day.
04:38And I'd be like calling getting secret dance lessons like, don't tell Bradley.
04:42Renowned choreographer Mandy Moore threw them in the deep end with an intense, weeks-long training course.
04:48The final sequence is dazzling in most places and charmingly clumsy in others.
05:02That's because Cooper and Lawrence had to balance their newfound skills with a cathartic resolution to their character's emotional arcs
05:09and chemistry.
05:09Pat and Tiffany may not have won the competition, but the hardworking actors won many accolades along with our hearts.
05:33Number 16. Christian Bale. Newsies.
05:36It was a shock when acclaimed child actor Christian Bale landed the Disney musical Newsies.
05:41Dreams come true. Yes, they do. In Santa Fe.
05:48Well, nobody was more shocked than he was.
05:51When the straight drama he was cast in changed genres during development,
05:56the method actor found himself in a, quote, musical boot camp that included gymnastics and martial arts.
06:01All the Newsies could very easily tomorrow go off and work with the Stuntman Association.
06:06They loved that.
06:07We had an incredible teacher.
06:09Mike Vandrell is one of the top martial artists in the world.
06:12Bale could have stayed comfortably hidden during the group dance numbers,
06:15but the elaborate solo in Santa Fe revealed him to be a man of many talents.
06:26Bale is open about how the grueling production and commercial failure of Newsies bred regret for the experience.
06:33To the cult fan base, however, that makes his charm and chops even more of a highlight.
06:49Number 15. Ryan Guzman. Step Up Revolution.
06:53The Step Up franchise has generally been dedicated to casting experienced dancers.
07:08Even Channing Tatum had a street and club dancing background going into his four-week prep for the first installment.
07:14So mixed martial artist Ryan Guzman was definitely stunt casting for the lead role in Revolution.
07:19He's starting to go, boy, to remind when they hear me coming.
07:23I'll pay the ginger running when they get a chopper drumming.
07:25He's good enough for pop, good enough for pop, pop it.
07:28Choreographer Jamal Sims praised his athletic background for helping with muscle memory and coordination during a three-week crash course.
07:35Sean's stunningly flexible hip-hop solos still looked like they required a lot of skill.
07:40Guzman's real challenge was in making him look like a lover, not a fighter,
07:44during his gorgeous final routine with So You Think You Can Dance alum Catherine McCormick.
07:48All the same, his intense training delivered some knockout performances.
08:01Number 14. John Travolta. Saturday Night Fever.
08:05It's hard to imagine that John Travolta wasn't a complete natural on the dance floor in Saturday Night Fever.
08:16After all, his mother was a professional dancer, and he launched his career in musical theater.
08:22But the movie launched disco as a pop culture phenomenon by revealing the potential in getting down.
08:35This premise prompted Travolta to undergo a seven-month training regimen that involved studying various genres and exercising like a
08:42boxer.
08:43And still, Tony Manero's especially intense solo routine was shot in close-ups to downplay potentially distracting mistakes.
08:56So Travolta forced director John Badham to reshoot the scene to showcase his prowess.
09:01The legendary final sequence popularized the genuine art of disco dancing,
09:06even if audiences weren't fully aware of Travolta's commitment.
09:10If I lose your love, I know I will die.
09:13I'm saying I'll always be my baby.
09:16We can make it shine.
09:17Number 13. Rob McElhenney. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
09:22The adventurous comedian Rob McElhenney never ceases to astound fans with his physical dedication to Mac's transformation throughout the years.
09:30I got something that I gotta tell you, Dad, and I've been trying to find the best way to do
09:34it.
09:34And I just thought instead of saying it, maybe I could just show you how I feel inside.
09:40It wasn't enough for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to be uncharacteristically thoughtful about the character eventually coming out as
09:47gay.
09:47The season 13 finale, Mac Finds His Pride, ends with him powerfully expressing that process through interpretive dance.
10:04McElhenney was completely inexperienced when he trained for months to perform the profoundly emotional routine with accomplished ballerina Kylie Shea.
10:11I think I would go over to Allison's studio twice a week or sometimes three times a week for like
10:18three months.
10:19The scene itself is random considering the tone of the rest of the show, but the performance's legitimate skill and
10:25soul are what make it one of the most iconic moments in the show's history.
10:28Certainly, it was a triumph in both Mac's characterization and McElhenney's artistic range.
10:44Number 12. Chadwick Boseman, Get On Up
10:48From the voice to the swagger, there is no truly replicating the godfather of soul James Brown.
10:53What the hell are you doing?
10:55That's the mashed potato.
10:57That ain't nobody's mashed potato.
10:59Chadwick Boseman nonetheless poured his soul into Get On Up all the way to the concert scenes.
11:04Their elaborate staging demanded up to eight hours of training in Brown's signature dance style over the course of two
11:10months.
11:11One particular show, the Olympia show, we were filming it for like 15 hours and I did like 90 splits.
11:19On top of that, Boseman had to simultaneously mimic one of the most distinctive singing voices in music history.
11:33Then there was projecting the drama in uniting a heartbroken nation for Brown's legendary Boston Garden performance after the death
11:40of Martin Luther King.
11:41There will never again be a talent like James Brown, but the same can be said about Chadwick Boseman.
11:54Number 11. Rita Moreno, West Side Story.
11:58Even the most gifted dancers cast in the 1961 adaptation of West Side Story required extensive training for the spectacular
12:05musical numbers.
12:17Rita Moreno herself had not danced professionally in almost a decade and found limited use for Spanish style in jazz
12:25ballet.
12:32So she enrolled in every available class at a Eugene Loring dance school, practicing up to 10 hours almost every
12:39day.
12:39That's on top of the training regimen she shared with the cast.
12:43I ran to the local dancing school and took classes in ballet and tap and jazz.
12:54I had never done jazz in my life. I was a Spanish dancer. And believe me, they're worlds apart.
12:59Over a month and more than a hundred takes later, Moreno's spotlight number America was widely praised as the highlight
13:06of one of the great masterpieces in musical cinema.
13:08Her commitment had to have helped her chances of taking home that Oscar.
13:23Number 10. Jennifer Grey, Dirty Dancing.
13:26Despite Grey's impressive skills, this is one of those times when art totally imitates life.
13:31Patrick Swayze had been dancing practically since birth, while Grey was still pretty green when it came to picking up
13:37the steps.
13:38Her anxiety was real.
13:40I was terrified of doing a lift. He can't wrap his head around that kind of fear because he was
13:45completely fearless.
13:47And if you've ever worked with someone way less experienced, you know patience doesn't always win.
13:52Luckily, Swayze channeled that frustration into Johnny. According to Grey, that lift wasn't rehearsed either.
13:58I have to do a nice position. You keep that position and it's all up to me.
14:03She'd been too scared to try it. So what we see is pretty much her first real attempt.
14:09She joked to The Guardian, quote,
14:10I don't know how all these people who reenact it have the guts to throw themselves into the arms of
14:14anyone other than Patrick Swayze.
14:18I have the time on my life. Oh, I never felt this way before.
14:25Number 9. Zendaya and Zac Efron. The Greatest Showman.
14:30We can't talk about The Greatest Showman without mentioning the slick coordination between Zac Efron, Hugh Jackman, and Daniel Cloud
14:36Campos in The Other Side.
14:38Don't you want to get away to a whole new part you're gonna play?
14:44Cause I doubt what you need, so come with me and take the ride.
14:49But for this one, we're taking things airborne.
14:52We already knew Zendaya could dance, but now she was flying.
14:55She did all her own aerial choreography, which meant building core strength, learning to move gracefully through the air,
15:02and trusting her partner wouldn't let her face plant.
15:04Zac and I have really become a team. We're literally tied together up in the air, so we have to
15:09have a trust and a connection.
15:11On top of that, they had to move as one, sinking every spin and catch.
15:15What they pull off together is both breathtaking and emotional.
15:19A love story told through weightless motion and stunts that still make us gasp, no matter how many times we
15:25watch it.
15:25Why don't we rewrite the stars? It's taking the world to be hard.
15:37Anyone who's seen this actor move knows he's got rhythm, but for Hail Caesar, he had to learn a whole
15:42new language, tap.
15:54As Burt Gurney, a Gene Kelly type, he performs a fast, full-length tap number, despite never having tapped before.
16:02Would take some dancers a decade to master, Tatum had to cram into just three months.
16:07His choreographer and teacher, Christopher Gatelli, didn't go easy on him either.
16:11I in no way, shape, or form knew how hard it was going to be.
16:14I just figured that I could learn the tap movement and it would make the sound.
16:19But what I found is that you really need to be musical.
16:22Still, Tatum credits Gatelli for helping him push through what often felt like Mission Impossible.
16:28With tap, musicality's everything. Those shoes don't lie.
16:32He said the hardest part was dancing on a table.
16:34He didn't want to fall off, but with that tempo, he couldn't afford to miss a beat either.
16:46Number 7. Kevin Bacon, Footloose
16:49A town-wide ban on dancing wouldn't have mattered much to Kevin Bacon.
16:53He had such little experience with the art form that he didn't know how central it would be to Footloose
16:58when he first auditioned.
17:00Well, you're hot, hot, loaded like a gun.
17:06But as he realized how important that liberty was to Wren McCormick, Bacon threw himself into a grueling three-week
17:13prep fit for a pro.
17:14One side of the stage were mirrors and high bar, vaulting horses and rings and mats.
17:21And I was like, wow, okay, this is for real.
17:24Choreographer Lynn Taylor Corbett even extensively incorporated acrobatics.
17:28The virtuosity that Bacon displays throughout Footloose isn't just a fantasy of a teenage rebel's footwork.
17:35Some doubling aside, Wren's iconic warehouse solo was defined by the actor's layered emotional expressionism.
17:41Guys, as I used to say, there's too many guys dressed up like me.
17:44You know, I really had a big issue with that.
17:47There were some of the dance moves that I couldn't do.
17:50You know, there were flips.
17:51Though he was reluctant about becoming a superstar through a dance movie,
17:55Bacon made it a worthy display of his serious talent.
17:59Wow!
18:00What are you doing here?
18:05Number 6.
18:07Renee Zellweger, Chicago.
18:08Of the three actors on the Chicago poster, only one had formal dance training.
18:13For the others, it was a whole new challenge.
18:16Richard Gere had to learn tap from scratch,
18:18and his loud frustration during rehearsals even became a running joke on set.
18:22Come clean, Mr. Harrison, come clean.
18:25Even in Chicago, this kind of corruption cannot stand.
18:28Will I stand?
18:29That's enough, Mr. Flynn.
18:31I agree, Your Honor.
18:33It is enough.
18:35Director Rob Marshall had hoped to tap into Renee Zellweger's cheerleading background,
18:39but as it turned out, she had virtually no dance experience.
18:42In just six weeks, she had to learn to sing and dance,
18:46and she treated the art as an extension of her acting skills.
18:56The fact that she keeps up effortlessly with Catherine Zeta-Jones speaks volumes.
19:00Fortunately, Marshall felt that her inexperience actually worked in her character's favor.
19:13Number five, Michelle Williams, Fosse-Verdon.
19:17Anyone who knows Fosse knows how intricate his choreography is.
19:20Add Gwen Verdon to the mix, and you've got something in a league of its own.
19:24Who's got the pain when they do the mumbo?
19:26Who's got the pain when they go air?
19:28Who's got the pain when they do the mumbo?
19:30I don't know who.
19:32Do you?
19:32So when Michelle Williams stepped into Verdon's dance shoes, her work was cut out for her.
19:37After all, she was recreating some of the most iconic numbers in history.
19:41Choreographer and Fosse expert Dana Moore said they worked tirelessly to nail every nuance,
19:47just as Moore had once done with Fosse himself.
19:49Williams also took on a grueling schedule and admitted she often arrived on set full of doubt,
19:55but also with the belief that somehow it would come together.
19:58A lot of it is just repetition.
20:00It's allowing yourself to walk into something as a beginner and have faith in yourself and
20:06the people that you're working with, that you will perform it with fluidity and effortlessness.
20:12And if you've seen the series, you know it absolutely did.
20:16And that's good, isn't it grand, isn't it great, isn't it swell?
20:29While few could rival Old Blue Eyes when it came to singing, dancing didn't come quite
20:34as naturally.
20:44Thankfully, he had one of Hollywood's best by his side, Gene Kelly.
20:49Kelly was known to be a tough teacher, but he admired Sinatra's dedication,
20:53once saying he trained, quote, like a prize fighter.
20:55It probably helped that Kelly also choreographed the movies and could tailor steps to suit Sinatra's
21:00strengths.
21:12Even so, it reportedly took eight weeks of practice and 72 takes to land the version we
21:17know and love.
21:18But watching him move so seamlessly next to a dance legend proves all that hard work,
21:23and their undeniable chemistry, absolutely paid off.
21:26You'd never guess it didn't come easily.
21:39Number three, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
21:43No matter how many times we watch Mary Poppins, it still blows our minds that Dick Van Dyke
21:48danced like that with zero formal training.
21:51He grew up miming.
21:53Without dance training, he has great movement training, and when he moves into the choreography,
21:59he's able to get those steps.
22:01That was something that was a part of his movement quality.
22:05That number is nearly 10 minutes long, seriously athletic, and yet he keeps up like he came out
22:10of the womb kicking his knees up.
22:21Apparently, as a young man, he based his workouts on Broadway dancers, which might explain his
22:26stamina, but not his skillful rhythm and coordination.
22:29Still, if you asked him what the hardest routine of his career was, he'd point you elsewhere.
22:34And at the end of it, we all had to jump over our sticks at the same time.
22:38Every time, one guy would miss.
22:4023 takes we did at that point.
22:43And if you look, if you ever see the movie, I'd go, I'd catch it on my heel, I'd go,
22:48The old bamboo needed props, stamina, and serious teamwork.
22:53Apparently, it took 23 takes to nail, and by the last one, he said he practically made it
22:58through by the skin of his teeth.
22:59You better have a mother with the old, black swan!
23:04You better have a mother with the old, black swan!
23:10Ballet blends athleticism, artistry, and endurance like almost nothing else.
23:25It's no wonder Nina Sayers' ambition triggered the breakdown at the center of Black Swan.
23:30And it's no surprise that dance rehearsing was crucial to Natalie Portman's Oscar-winning
23:35performance.
23:36She'd spend two hours a day for six months on core strength, then add three-hour ballet
23:41classes for another six, followed by daily eight-hour choreography sessions.
23:45We're meeting at 5, 5.30 in the morning, doing ballet for two or three hours.
23:50She goes and works a 12-hour day and meets me at the gym at night, and we're doing our
23:55toning exercises and, you know, swimming a mile.
23:58And then she goes home and goes to sleep, and we get up the next day and do it again.
24:01She also had to channel Nina's emotional weight while moving with the grace of a true dancer.
24:07Portman later described the process as, quote, intense but really fun, too.
24:11It couldn't have been more intense than the controversy surrounding the extent to which
24:15ballerina Sarah Lane took the lead.
24:17Still, Portman's power on the screen cannot be overstated.
24:39Before we continue, check out this single from SoundMojo's album, Current, EDM Transformed.
24:45Check out the full track and album below.
25:05This film is a full-blown downpour of tough choreography.
25:09We've all heard about Debbie Reynolds' grueling training under Gene Kelly, but at least her
25:14story didn't end with a hospital stay.
25:16It was, I had blood in my shoes, and it was very difficult to do those numbers as fast
25:24as they wanted them and as long as they want them, over and over and over and over.
25:28The make-em-laugh number is brilliant but brutal.
25:30And then you get a great big custard fly in the face.
25:33Make-em-laugh, make-em-laugh, make-em-laugh.
25:37Donald O'Connor hurls himself around the set like a human cartoon, pulling off stunts most
25:42of us wouldn't dare unless we fancied a trip to the ER.
25:45As the only performer in the scene, there's nowhere to hide.
25:57Then, thanks to a camera glitch, he had to do the entire thing again.
26:01And O'Connor, who smoked like a chimney, powered through, barely.
26:05He ended up in the hospital for a few days.
26:07The routine's a masterpiece, but boy did it cost him.
26:17Who are some other actors who surprised you with their dance moves?
26:21Get on the floor in the comments below.
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