All the right moves: 21 of the best dance scenes in film

Grease is riddled with dance numbers from start to finish, and while watching a 20-something John Travolta gyrate on a classic car is nice — and the finale is grand — it’s the dance scene at the dance that cha-cha'd its way into the hearts of fans most.

Jennifer Garner's Jenna Rink had audiences a little on edge when she found herself in the spotlight in the middle of the dancefloor, but she showed the pure joy that comes with the power of dance by busting out the iconic moves from Michael Jackson's "Thriller," of course, with Mark Ruffalo's Matty by her side.

Tom Cruise will be remembered for a lot of things, and chances are, dancing around in his undergarments in Risky Business will be in the top 10 as it’s one of the most recreated scenes in pop culture.

Name a more iconic movie opening. We’ll wait.

Nothing quite like watching Jeff Bridges getting his dance on in a sea of women rocking bowling pin headdresses.

Bachelorette party destinations like Nashville and New Orleans probably loathe Coyote Ugly because it single-handedly put the idea into the heads of a whole generation that they could hop on any bar and dance.

Beetlejuice made it seem like being possessed wasn’t all that bad.

Moments of joy are sprinkled throughout The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and one of them revolves around siblings sharing a dance to one of the best one-hit wonders around, “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners.

Titanic isn’t the first movie people think about when they think of dancing. Mainly because it is a romantic tale pieced together over one of history’s biggest tragedies, but alas, there is a single scene where Jack and Rose go below deck and have a whirl of a good time. Aside from the infamous scene where a hand slides down a foggy car window, this is the happiest those characters are in the entire film.

Everything about Barbie  makes it a true stimulant when it comes to cinema, from the abundance of detail in the set design and the cinematography to Ryan Gosling and the rest of the Kens’ dance battle royale that is the icing on an already amazing piece of cake movie.

There are many reasons why The Rocky Horror Picture Show has a cult following that’s made it so that at any given time, there's a showing of it with droves of fans not only dressed in costumes but also fans perfectly recreating the “Time Warp” from the movie in-person.

One could argue that the Disney Channel during the mid-'00s was the last great wave of youthful programming, given that it was the era that not only gave way to Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato but also the film franchise High School Musical . And while that Zac Efron giant had a lot of dancing throughout its three films, the original’s ending will forever warm Wildcats’ hearts.

As if this movie wasn’t going to be mentioned. It’s the dance movie. Plus, where would the internet be without the countless videos of people failing to recreate the lift from the final dance in Dirty Dancing?

One of the things that makes a dance scene even more glorious is when it makes absolutely no sense. Romy and Michele really didn’t have to team up with the former nerd-turned-billionaire and execute a routine to Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” but hey, it worked and was the most memorable moment from the movie.

Learning dance has never looked so good!

In reality, this would never happen, but in the world of Ferris Bueller, where anything is possible, why not?

Napoleon Dynamite put the weirdo center stage, both figuratively as the star of the movie and literally when the titular character decided to do that odd but mesmerizing number.

There are a handful of scenes from Disney movies that feel like modern art, and the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast is one of them due to the level of elegance and romance.

A movie viewed by women of a particular age who grew up with posters of boy bands on their wall? Magic Mike XXL knew exactly what it was doing when it paired Joe Manganiello with Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way.”

It's great when the kids of Bomont finally get to dance at the end of Footloose, but it comes second to when Ren and Willard have what can only be described as an emotional breakdown of marriage with a religious experience while dancing.

The one thing most viewers wonder when dance scenes break out in movies is, “How does everyone know the moves?” That is why the big musical number from Enchanted  set in Central Park is amazing. Patrick Dempsey’s Robert has that same real-world reaction to dancing and singing going on around him, but it doesn’t sully the moment at all.