Saturday was National Dance Day, a “holiday” founded by So You Think You Can Dance producer Nigel Lythgoe, proving the old adage: “If you have a hit show on FOX, you can make up a national holiday.” Fingers crossed that Gordon Ramsey’s National Scream at People Day is on the horizon.
Anyway, we got to thinking, if a TV personality can make the holiday happen, why can’t we extend it to cover the entire weekend? After-all, all the best dance parties go all night into the next day, right? So, if you’re forlorn about missing your chance to dance with the nation, don’t be. Now is the perfect time to watch some streaming dance films and shake it.
The Forbidden Dance (YouTube and Amazon)
This film is the intersection of two things: a late 80s dance craze (craze might be overstating it) and environmental awareness. The princess of a Brazilian tribe, Nisa (Laura Harring), goes to LA, where she teams up with rich boy Jason (Jeff James) to win a sexy dance contest because it’s the only way to raise public awareness about the destruction of the rainforest.
Shall We Dance? (Amazon Prime and Netflix)
Shohei Sugiyama (Kōji Yakusho) is a Japanese business man with a wife, a daughter, and a good job. But, he isn’t happy. After signing up for Western ballroom dance classes, he finds himself hiding his new passion from friends, family, and co-workers. Comedy ensues as he works through his mid-life crisis via dance. The American remake is also streaming on Netflix.
Footloose (Netflix)
If, for some reason, you missed both the 1984 original and the 2011 remake, Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) and his family move from Chicago to rural Bomont, where dancing has been outlawed. Watch John Lithgow as the passionate preacher, Lori Singer as his wild child, and Chris Penn as someone the audience is supposed to believe learned how to dance. You can also stream the remake on Amazon.
Flashdance (Sony)
Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) is a bad-ass Pittsburgh welder by day and a creative exotic dancer by night. What she wants more than anything is to be a part of a competitive dance conservatory. Flashdance is essentially an underdog story and the only movie to try to make eating lobster into foreplay.
Gotta Dance (Netflix)
A critical success, this documentary chronicles the formation of the the first-ever, senior-citizen, hip-hop dance team, NJ NETSationals, for the New Jersey Nets. It’s a heart-warmer that follows 12 women and a single man through try-outs, rehearsals, performances, and personal interviews.
Dirty Dancing (Netflix)
This is the film that made girls of the ’80s long to sexy dance and wear form-fitting denim shorts. It’s 1963 and Frances “Baby” Houseman (Jennifer Grey) and her family are staying at a resort in the Catskills, where she meets and falls for swoon-inducing dance instructor Johnny (Patrick Swayze). The re-imagining, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, which also pairs a well-off girl with a dancing poor man (this time in Castro’s Cuba), is also streaming on Netflix.
Save the Last Dance (Amazon)
Sara (Julia Stiles), a “former” ballerina learns to love dance again with the help of Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas). Fun Fact: Stiles table dancing scene in 10 Things I Hate About You helped her land this role; also, keep an eye out for young Bianca Lawson and Kerry Washington.
Step Up (Amazon)
Troublemaker and street dancer Tyler Clark (Channing Tatum) gets arguably the best community service sentence ever: cleaning the Maryland School of Arts. Ultimately, this leads him to land a scholarship, launch a career, and get the girl (Jenna Dewan-Tatum).
Cuban Fury (Netflix)
Bruce Garrett (Nick Frost) is a former salsa champion and current fat engineer. When he develops a crush on his new boss, Julia (Rashida Jones), he vows to regain his former glory to win her over. The performances of Ian McShane, Olivia Colman, and Chris O’Dowd make this film.
Strictly Ballroom (Netflix)
Prize-winning, competitive dancer Scott (Paul Mercurio) comes from a ballroom dance family. When he abandons the steps they taught him to develop his own and takes on a novice partner (Tara Morice) from the wrong side of the tracks, no one around them believes that they can win the Australian Pan Pacific Championships. This is the best dance film no one has ever heard of; Baz Luhrmann has (arguably) never been better.
