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11 Unforgettable Hollywood Dance Numbers

 

 

You know them by heart, you hum them and dance to them in the shower in all probability. Your parents thrilled you (and the rest of the room) by performing one of these at their Silver Wedding Anniversary. Your brother asked his new bride for her first dance to one of these, or maybe some drunk uncle made one of these his party regulars. Here’s a compilation that can never go out of vogue; some time-stopping tracks from Hollywood that make it to our most iconic dance moments on film.

 

 

Time of my Life – Dirty Dancing

 

Every dance enthusiast knows this song by rote. (Some have it as their permanent ringtone. In fact, Modern Family’s Phil Dunphy will watch this movie again and again, and Cam and Mitch probably have added their personal touch to it.) Patrick Swayze swooning a young nubile girl into a chiselled dancer who wows everybody at the grand gala towards the end of the movie; however well-versed you are with every aspect of this dance, you must watch it everytime it comes on TV. That is just how crackling the lead pair’s chemistry is.

 

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Dirty Dancing 2 – Havana Nights

Generations have drooled together on the Latin ballroom steps and rumba-sweeps of the very passionate climactic dance of Dirty Dancing 2. The film translates the excitement of the contest into reality, for the two odd hours that the film takes up your life. You want them to sweep the floor, you want them to win, but more, you want them to kiss, and they do.

 

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Moses Supposes – Singing in the Rain

While the unforgettable song from the movie, Singing in the Rain, and Gene Kelly’s dance moves have since then appeared in several avatars, (even as Clockwork Orange did another unforgettable gory version of it) the one that stayed with us was his tap dance number with Donnel -O-I-can-twist-my-face-to-any-weird-contortion -Connor. Their foot tapping perfect to the tongue twisting lyrics of the song, “Moses supposes his toeses are roses but Moses supposes erroneously”, Gene Kelly and Donnel-O-Connor establish the first chapter of technicolour bromance.

 

 

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The Tango – Scent of a Woman

It might not be the perfect example of a tango lesson, but it certainly was the most enchanting one, when Al Pacino as the chivalrous Lieutenant General Frank Slade takes the hand of a young vulnerable Gabrielle Anwar and leads her onto the dance floor while out with his nephew and the rest of the restaurant looks on to Al Pacino to teach them the finer aspects of life. Sigh.

 

 

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Take it off the E String, Play it on the G-String

Barbara Stanwyck’s burlesque is where it all started. The legend that she was in her 60-year old career in Hollywood, a relatively lesser known fact remains that she started off performing in a club, and knew how to sing a song and perform it with all the flounces that makes her screen presence what it was.

 

 

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Step-Up 2 Final Dance

 

The dance that set off hip-hop into the mainstream all around the world, and was a big part of their teenage, patented several moves, and yet managed to be likeable universally, deserves a mention here. Timbaland’s Bounce acquired a new dimension altogether, once we had seen Channing Tatum and Briana Evigan play around with it.

 

 

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The Tango Lesson

 

With the tango legend Pablo Veron in the lead, there is very little that could have gone wrong with this number. The power dynamics between the lead female character and Pablo Veron, which gets turned upside down with him leading the dance by default makes it yet even more charming to watch, apart from being a good starting point to go by when it comes to doing the tango.

 

 

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Saturday Night Fever- Staying Alive

 

John Travolta shakin’ it up for you in ‘em high-waisted bell bottoms and body hugging tees, with those disco lights going blink-blink-blink. This movie came and changed what disco meant in common parlance. Again, we’re talking a worldwide impact.

 

 

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Shall We Dance – Santa Maria

 

As in every good dance movie, the tension between Richard Gere and Jenifer Lopez as they do the tango in a tungsten-bathed bare room is so palpable it can cut through glass. The imperfections add to the nuances of their equation, apart from being a very clever playing to the galleries technique.

 

 

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Ice Princess – Reaching for Heaven

 

 

Known for its graceful choreography, an ice figure skating set to music remains one of the more beautifully captured dance sequences on screen. A song that will inspire you to take up figure skating just to feel like you’re ‘kissing the skies’.

 

 

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Take the Lead – Tango

 

 

Antonio Banderas’s presence in any iconic dance list is a necessity, and so is this film’s. “Sex on hardwood” student Morgan as played by Lithuanian Katya Virshilas, who’s been present in other iconic dance movies like Shall We Dance and Strictly Come Dancing wows by matching up to Antonio Banderas’s skill, leaving the rest of the watching students in the movie as well as the audience watching the film astounded.

 

 

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To read about our list featuring Bollywood songs which featured in Hollywood films, click here. To read about when Bollywood stars went singing, click here. To read about the indie musicians who made it to the Grammys click here. If you would like to know more about the mystery behind Daft Punk’s helmets, click here. 

 

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