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Dance Line

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Here, we go 'round the mulberry bush...

During the course of the movie, show etc etc... the characters somehow end up being in a crowd with some nice music. Alice wants to dance, and so she does... then pulls Bob. When Bob was being drawn, he pulls Clair. And while doing so, Clair grabs Emely, and so on and so forth, until almost everyone is in the dance.

This is the Dance Line—wherein people who normally weren't dancing earlier dance because they are pulled in, and in doing so pulls another one from the crowd. Singing isn't required, but when it does, it may soon end up with a Crowd Song. Bonus points if Bob or the others cannot dance.

Related to Crowd Song. Usually a form of Happy Dance. Compare Dances and Balls; because your typical dance has people watching, talking, resting, or taking refreshments as well as dancing, it can occur at one, but it's rare.

Not to be confused with the Rhythm Game of the same name.


Examples

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     Film — Animated 

     Film — Live Action 
  • In Just Visiting, when Andre and the neighbor maid Amber visit a nightclub, they initiate one which promptly shows Hunter two-timing with another girl.
  • The title character does this in "Cuban Pete" sequence in The Mask. He pulls a female police officer out of a crowd of cops and starts dancing with her, and soon everyone's dancing in a conga line.
  • Jenna does this in the Thriller sequence in 13 Going on 30.
  • In The Muppets (2011), the first song in the movie entitled "I Have Everything That I Need" features this as Gary and Walter sing in their neighborhood.
  • Although the 1996 Japanese Shall We Dance ended with an actual dance, it still drew in more and more characters who had not actually intended to dance.
  • The 1971 film Protein Synthesis An Epic On The Cellular Level, made for Stanford University, illustrates protein synthesis as a delightfully hippy-dippy line dance with balloons and Jabberwocky-inspired narration. View it here!
  • Never on Sunday is set in Greece and sure enough, the theme song features one of those Greek dance lines with the inevitable bazouki accompaniment. note 

     Literature 
  • A very creepy one in Seeker's Mask by PC Hodgell. Most of the priest's college had been in one for days. Not all of the dancing priests are still alive...

     Puppet Shows 

     Theater 

     Video Games 
  • In Team Fortress 2, if you buy the Conga taunt, you are able to have players join in the dance line. This allows players to earn 2 achievements. For one achievement, if there are 10 players joining in the line, it'll let you receive the achievement alongside those who joined in the taunt. On the other hand, there's also an achievement for killing 3 players using the Conga taunt. Friendlies are able to use this taunt to host mini parties and other related events.

     Western Animation 
  • In the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Headband", Aang is trying to teach some Fire Nation kids how to relax and have fun and does this at his secret dance party.
  • In the very last episode of Clone High, the Board of Shadowy Figures has arrived to collect the clones. Due to amnesia, Scudworth forgot about it and is in utter shock, and tries to plead with the leader of the Board to give him more time. His efforts seem futile, until his old friend, John Stamos, tells them that they can't do that until the prom king has done his conga line dance. The line is formed with Scudworth, carrying Stamos in his arms, as the leader, and many of the one-time characters forming the rest of the line, which continues until they reach the meat freezer.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: In one of the Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts, Cosmo and Wanda summon a dance line for Timmy as part of a celebration that he's being left without a babysitter.
  • In an episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Smithers is sent on vacation, and goes to a gay resort. He calls Mr. Burns to check up on him...and a conga line forms behind him at the payphone, which he proceeds to lead.
    Mr. Smithers: Well, I've gotta go. There's a line forming behind me.

 
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Video Example(s):

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Kingdom Dance

Shortly after getting her hair braided, Rapunzel celebrates her arrival at the festival, by dancing, inviting other people with her until seemingly everyone in town has joined in.

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Main / HappyDance

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