Continuing the dance...

Continuing on a theme from yesterday regarding the dance numbers in old musicals.  They're great to watch when not spliced up to Uptown Funk as well.  I'll start with a Mojo list and then add five of my own favorites that didn't make the cut.

This is actually a pretty good list. I liked it more than I thought I would although I'm a little surprise that the finale of Dirty Dancing didn't get the number one spot. But in effort to include musicals from all decades, it ended up leaving out some of my personal favorites. Not all of them are old, mind you.

But a few are. This scene from White Christmas is one of my favorite romantic dance moments and I think it's better than a couple in the Mojo list. There was actually a lot of great dancing in White Christmas. Vera Ellen was the "professional dancer" of the group and although Danny Kaye was talented enough to keep up, they took the opportunity of putting her range on display during scenes where their acting company were having rehearsals and they'd pair her with another professional male dancer for a couple of brief numbers. But they weren't relevant to the plot so they wouldn't be put on a list like this.

Shall We Dance from The King And I. Just a polka perhaps, but you can cut the tension with a knife and it deserves to be noted as one of my personal favorites. I suppose they didn't want to make it exclusively one-on-one dances either and I totally get that.

This one is a major choreographic undertaking with a couple of one-on-one moments for the leading characters. It makes full use of the set with amazing wide shots of perfect rhythm and a variety of dance styles. I'm a little surprised this one wasn't on the Mojo list because it was a very well constructed dance sequence. And it's humorous as well. It's certainly equal to the chimney sweeps of Mary Poppins which I also loved.

*Warning - naked butts in this sequence if it offends you. Like I said, they're not all from the "old" musicals and this is an exclusively group dance to add variety to my own list. You may not expect a choice like this, but I loved this movie too and there's a lot of talent on display especially during the Aggie U victory celebration. You can't help but be impressed at how precise the choreography is while also looking completely random at the same time so that it continues to appear manly. I haven't seen West Side Story, but as far as more modern musicals go, I think this is stiff competition for other "manly" dance routines.

Finally the scene from Annie when she's first taken to the Warbucks mansion. It's group dance divided into segments of song. The dances of the butlers and maids are unique and make use of props as well. It's another big, sweeping number that builds and builds like Marion the Librarian. It's one of my all time favorites.