Favorite dance movies

With dance being a huge part of my life, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m fond of watching dance movies to lift my spirits. Apart from the dancing, the stories are paper thin. Mostly they are the best type of feel good movie out there. If you like watching beautiful people fall in love while dancing their butts off: then this is for you. This is my selection of favorite dance movies.

Step Up 1, 2, 4

The Step Up series are dear to my heart. These movies just make me want to get up and dance, which is exactly the effect these movies seem to have whenever they’re released. Suddenly the whole world wants to move like those guys and gals in these movies. The third installment was not that memorable, but the other 3 versions are great. All movies are about a boy and a girl who stem from different backgrounds who end up dancing together. Think ballet/ jazz/ modern dance meets hiphop. It’s about the clashing of worlds and characters, what you would do for those you love and how far you are willing to go to get there. Think Fast & the Furious, but with dance instead of cars.

Step up 1:

Step up 2 (final dance sequence):

Step up 4:

Grease

My first ‘dance’ movie I watched was Grease. As a 10 year old I was madly in love with John Travolta (I did not know the movie was made in the 70s…) and anything Grease. I watched this so often, I knew most of the dialogue by heart. So this doesn’t exactly make the list for the exquisite dancing, but there are a ton of memories attached to this one. If you care to see some cool Rock N Roll dancing then tune in to this baby. The clip is from my favorite part of the entire movie. And shame on you if you don’t know the little hand dance routine by the end of it.

Born to hand jive:

Save the last dance

Girl moves in with dad after mum dies in a car crash. Dad lives in a not so nice part of town, while his daughter had hopes of auditioning for prestigious dance school Julliard in New York. Through her move to a world she doesn’t know, she gives up hope of becoming a dancer. But through her new found love she is introduced to hip hop dancing which gives her a renewed hope for chasing her dreams. With Julia Stiles (I think this may be the only movie in this list that has a credible actor in it). Oh and the movie was choreographed by Fatima Robinson who choreographed for Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys and Haim.

Final dance:

Dirty Dancing 1 & 2

***Oh I had the time of my life!*** I’m sure when you hear that line of lyric you’ll know I’m talking about the first Dirty Dancing movie. Both movies deal with upper class girls who fall in love with a boy whom their parents don’t approve of. The stories are completely separate though, even though Patrick Swayze has a cameo in the second movie as a dance teacher. Where the first movie is set around ‘Dirty Dancing’, the second movie focuses on Cuban dancing. I like both movies. The first one I like more so because of nostalgic reasons, whereas I like the dancing and the music in the second movie a lot better.

Final dance 1:

Dance 2:

Burlesque

On to something a little more recent. I do think though that if you’re not much into Christina Aguilera, you won’t like this movie much perhaps, but I still like it nonetheless. Not so much a dance movie per se, but still a movie filled with good tunes and amazing sets and costumes. With Cam Gigandet for the much needed man candy and Steve Tucci for comic relief, this is a fun movie about a girl who comes to Hollywood to make it big, which of course fails miserably at first.

Chicago

Last but not least, is Chicago. One of the very first musicals I ever saw and most certainly the first musical I saw on Broadway. I sang songs from it when I did singing classes, and ended up doing the dance routine to Cell Block Tango with a bunch of friends when I was still a student. Ah the memories! Roxie Hart kills her husband and is send to jail to await her trial. There she meets Velma Kelly, former vaudeville star who has been charged with the murder of her sister and husband. In jail, Roxie finds that she can make the corrupt prison warden as well as her lawyer Billy Flynn work in her favor and claims her innocence. For those of you that like tongue in cheek jokes and jazz music. Though beware that all the main character are portrayed by actors who happen to sing (not always the best of combos).

What are your favorite dance movies?