Dance movies list

Are you looking for the best dance movie so you can spend one or more evenings watching a movie or TV series regarding this subject? You are in the right place!

Here is a dance movie list just for you! We selected the titles of the best dance movies that make part of the cinema history and have dance as a narrative thread…

1. Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Among all the dance movies, our list couldn’t help but start with “Saturday Night Fever“.

The main character lives in a low-income household in Brooklyn. During the day he works as a salesman, but in the evening he goes wild performing on the dance floor with his friends. He tries to balance his passion for dancing  and that for Stephanie, his standoffish exhibitions partner. 

With the city of New York in the background, dancing becomes for the Italian-American Tony Manero a way for moral and social redemption. The violence of the city, among beatings and dreadful incidents, doesn’t take too long to make its way, so Tony understands it’s time to change his life.   

John Travolta’s moves on the dance floor and the film soundtrack made it one of the most successful musical movies ever, a true cult movie that has left a permanent mark in the history of the cinema. 

2. Flashdance (1983)

A second dance movie is “Flashdance”, the main character is Alex Owens, a 18 year-old girl, passionate about dancing, who during the day works as a welder and in the evening performs in a club as a dancer. Her biggest dream is to enter the Pittsburgh’s dance Academy and it’s for this reason that she workouts without stopping. When she arrives at the Academy to sign up for a casting , anxiety and inadequacy come up, so Alex gives up the chance. A sudden love will totally change her, making her embrace new opportunities. 

Flashdance is a typical example of the naive spirit of that time, and, with its morals, invites you to follow your dreams with perseverance and never give up even if difficulties come on the way.

3. Dirty dancing (1987)

How about a movie that is both a dance movie and a romantic movie? You can find all of that in “Dirty dancing”. 

Dr. Houseman goes on holiday to a beautiful hotel with his wife and the two daughters, Baby and Lisa. In an atmosphere where social differences are still felt and against her parents expectations, Baby is attracted to dance and falls in love with Johnny, the dancer teacher who animates the evenings in the resort and the one who will introduce her to the dance world. 

During the dance classes the two guys get in touch more and more, but this bond will cost Johnny a job. An unfounded accusation, in fact, will twist the plot unexpectedly.  

4. Footloose (1984)

Are you looking for a dance movie and even a love one? Choose “Footloose”.

For family reasons, Ren McCormack leaves Chicago, where he used to go wild with his friends losing himself at rock acrobacies, and arrives in Bomont. Here, that youth good therapy, the rock acrobacing, has been banned by a municipal law and is defended to the bitter end by the pastor of the local Church.

Ariel, the pastor’s daughter, falls in love at the first sight with Ren, who will do his best to get rock dancing music back to legal again in the village, where Ariel’s father exerts a repressive supremacy.   

5. Billy Elliot (2000)

A dance movie you must watch is “Billy Elliot”.

Billy is a 11 year-old child that has lost his mother since the age of 10 and lives with his father Jackie, his brother Tony and his grandmother. Force by the father to practice boxing, he discovers an inner passion for the classical dance, that clashes with the prejudices of the time that want to see dancing a shameful approach to homosexuality.

Billy doesn’t give up and, while his father forces him to attend boxing classes at the gym, he starts taking dance classes in order to enter the Royal Ballet School in London. 

When his brother and father discover the truth, the situation gets tough. 

Fearing that Billy will be considered gay, both Jackie and Tony, are indignant to the idea that he could become a professional dancer. 

One day Jackie finds Billy dancing at the gym and he realizes that his son is really good at dancing, so he decides to make all the efforts to help his son’s dream come true.  

6. Honey (2003)

Are you looking for a hip-hop movie? We selected “Honey”. Honey Daniels has a dream: becoming a dancer and a hip-hop choreographer. Thanks to her determination, she always finds a way to realize her ambitions, despite the doubts of who surrounds her. Honey’s days are divided between castings, teaching hip-hop to the young guys in the neighborhood, working as a waitress and  ending up on the club dance floor at night. One night, right in the place where she works, she gets scouted by Michael Ellis, a famous TV director, who offers her an unmissable opportunity: to participate in an important video clip. 

From that moment Honey’s career will get underway: all the most famous hip-hop artists want her to put together the choreo for their video clips,  even the famous rapper Missy Elliott. Success is now assured, but one night she rejects Michael advances and that will cost her a career. 

7. Step Up (2006)

You can’t miss out on another love and hip-hop dance movie called “Step Up”.

After a party, the brothers Mac and Skinny Carter and their friend Tyler Gage, once entered the Maryland School of Arts theater, damaged many propos.

When a bodyguard arrives, Tyler helps his friends flee, taking himself the responsibility for those acts of vandalism. 

The guy has been sentenced to two hundred hours of community service, that are supposed to be run at school.  

While he works as a janitor, he ends up in a dance course, in which Nora Clark stands, a student who is training for a professional dancing performance. 

When her dance partner, Andrew, has his ankle twisted, Nora finds herself without a partner for the show and Tyler offers to help, showing his skills and convincing her to be the right partner. Between one step and another the two end up falling in love, but life keeps on putting them to the test.

8. Make it happen (2008)

Are you looking for a hip-hop dance film? The right one is “Make it happen”.

Lauryn, orphan of both parents, runs along with her brother Joel the family workshop but her true passion is dancing and, despite all the stuff to handle, she always finds the time to train. Her dream is to attend the prestigious Chicago School of Music and Dance casting and build up a future as a dancer. Hope is short-lived: the examiner interrupts the casting, who prefers far more feminine moves than those of hip-hip. 

With her dreams broken Lauryn needs to go back to Glenwood, but an unexpected proposal comes on her way. Dana, dancer and waitress, offers her work as an accountant in a burlesque club. The atmosphere doesn’t convince her but there is no choice, so she decides to accept. The passion for dancing is hard to repress and Russ, the deejay of the club, will be the first to notice it.

9. The Black Swan (2010)

Do you look for the latest dance movies? We picked “The Black Swan”.

Nina Sayers is a gifted dancer, but mentally and physically unstable because of the obsessive relationship with her mother Erica. 

The latter, a mediocre former dancer who failed to make a career, seems to be envious of Nina’s talent and treats her like a child. Nina, by the will of the director, gains the main role in “Swan Lake” showing a happy appearance even if with self-defeating tendencies.

At that point, Nina bumps into a classmate, Lily, less talented than her, but endowed with a passion that makes her that “Black Swan” Nina cannot be. Her life’s a mess, her dream to be a prima ballerina is hanging by a thread and her devotion to dance doesn’t allow her to split reality from fiction. 

10. New York Academy (2016)

The last dance movie we selected is “New York Academy”. This movie’s characters are Ruby, a smart dancer and Johnnie, a talented violinist.

One day Ruby, while being in the New York subway, is delighted to look at Johnnie playing and, all of a sudden, two hip-hop dance groups that have started to dance, bump into Ruby accidentally, making her fall. 

While helping her get up, the young violinist gets distracted and someone steals his instrument, a gift from his grandfather. The girl feels so guilty and borrows a violin from her school. 

When she gives it to Roby, he gets angry and pushes her away, accusing her of being only a rich and superficial girl like so many. Johnnie can’t report the robbery suffered because he is a clandestine citizen and he lives in the United States illegally. At this very moment Ruby has an idea: she will ask the musician to attend with her the dance and music competition with a notable prize in case of winning. At last he could get a visa.