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