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Worried about bait and switch writers who'll drop a drama bomb in your funny show? Look for dancing, because putting a dancing sequence during the show theme is a good way to indicate your show's overall goal of having fun. It's also a very quick way to show off the entire cast at once and make the Theme Tune more infectious by associating it in your head with dancing.
Because most shows use a more sedate song and static visual for endings, dancing there is usually done with simple — very simple — animation. If dancing is in the opening theme, this is often the most sophisticated bit of animation the show ever does.
An added source of humor is when, for the purposes of inclusion, a completely inappropriate character is included.
Some of these dancing sequences become popular enough that characters from other media are depicted copying the dances in fanwork.
Compare Five Man Band Concert. For the Dancing Theme where they're in kimonos, see Ondo.
Examples
Anime
- The ending credits of Shin-chan have the song Party, Join Us, with an animation of Shin and his dog Whitey doing a strange dance with street signs.
- Futari Wa Pretty Cure ED "Get You! Love Love", Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash*Star second ED "Ganbalance de Dance", Yes! Precure 5 second ED "Ganbalance de Dance -Yume miru Kiseki-tachi-", and Go Go's second ED... "Ganbalance de Dance -Kibou no Relay-". It's a good thing it's such a fun song, or we might be a bit annoyed.
- Also, Fresh Pretty Cure first ED "You Make Me Happy", which surprisingly, it's much cooler than those mentioned above. It's in 3D! And everything's cooler in 3D, right?
- And the second ED, "H@ppy Together
 ", by far cuter. I mean, what could be more adorable than the four Cures doing the robot dance in the upcoming Clover Orgel of Happiness like they're dolls, and later on the song, doing wave movements with their arms and feeling complete?
- Galaxy Angel Rune OP "Uchuu de Koi wa Rururune, which some feel was pretty much the only good thing about the show.
- The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya's ending theme, "Hare Hare Yukai," proved wildly popular, spawning countless imitation videos and becoming a hit at conventions. A DVD special takes this one step further, eliminating all of the still-frames from the original ending, producing a single continuous dance sequence that covers the entire ending theme. Add to this the inclusion of Yuki Nagato, who acts in the series as a combination of Emotionless Girl and The Spock (though to the creator's credit, she stays in character, keeping a straight face the entire time). Likewise, Deadpan Snarker Kyon appears to be somewhat exasperated at having to participate in this silliness.
- The show's OP also qualifies as a Dancing Theme, albeit to a lesser extent.
- Well, it was given a dance sequence in the Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidou Wii game. The entire game is consisted of dance sequences given to a bunch of image songs. Even "Hare Hare Yukai" gets an extended dance sequence.
- Kyon's face says "no," but his body says "yes." He's in synch, and even does the feminine hip wiggle and limp-wristing.
- The OP of Lucky Star ("Motteike! Sailor Fuku"), by the same production company, rendered in full in the final episode as a cheerleading routine.
- The ending theme of Lime-iro Senkitan consists of each of the main girls doing a different dance with maracas and shaking their butt. Very repetetive. Very easy to learn.
- The ending theme to the Happy Lesson TV series featured SD versions of the female cast (which is practically the entire cast) grooving along to the music, admittedly with a rather funny sense of timing in places.
- Chocotto Sister ED, the Neko Nyan Dance.
- Overman King Gainer's OP "King Gainer Over!", with Humongous Mecha doing the monkey just to show the audience that this isn't the usual Tomino series.
- Especially weird in that in many ways it IS the usual Tomino series, with lots of angst, blood and fighting robots. Which makes the opening just seem more out of place (but still awesome.)
- Bacchikoi, the most recent ending of Naruto: Shippuden features the three rookie kunoichi Sakura, Ino, and Hinata dancing to the song. Lee and Guy-sensei eventually persuade Naruto to dance to the theme.
- "Junky Boy", the first Maze Megaburst Space ED.
- Subverted by Studio Gainax, when they parodied the both the first and second season opening credits of Kodomo No Omocha by reanimating them with characters and images from Neon Genesis Evangelion; the resulting videos featured all the troubled, broken, angsty characters of that series dancing, singing, and having fun.
- Seto No Hanayome's OP "Romantic Summer". Both OVA OPs also have plenty of dancing.
- Keroro Gunsou uses a number of these. Subverted in the ninth one, "Kurutto Mawatte Ikkaiten"; the characters start out dancing in a line, but about halfway through Kururu gets bored and wanders off.
- The semi-serious Tenjou Tenge has an opening sequence with some of the characters dancing along to the opening theme "Bomb A Head!" by MC A.T.
- "Kokoro Odoru", the second closing theme to SD Gundam Force. For those who are curious, this is a song in Osu Tatakae Ouendan (The pottery master stage), a cheerleading game (which of course includes dances).
- Several of the EDs to Urusei Yatsura feature a small figure of Lum dancing in place as the credits roll past.
- The ED of Princess Resurrection (or Monster Princess, depending on who's doing the translating) includes a brief sequence of half-werewolf
Liza Riza Wildman doing a bit of pelvic-thrust dirty dancing.
- Many Pokemon endings feature dancing. Usually, it is the 'mon themselves that dance, but other characters also get into the action in their own ending themes, like Takeshi/Brock ("Takeshi no Paradise") and Team Rocket ("Nyaasu no Party", "Maemuki Rocket-Dan").
- The ED of Paradise Kiss has sketchy, super-deformed versions of all five main characters dancing (and occasionally being chased by motor vehicles) to a song by Franz Ferdinand of all people.
- Kodomo No Jikan's ending featured booty-shaking third-graders.
- Moyashimon had dancing and bouncing CGI bacteria in its OP. (No, really.)
- The fourth ED of Get Backers featured more or less the entire cast in a line dance, drawn in South Park/paper marionette style. There wasn't really a surprise character (unless you count Fudou), but they did stick Kazuki with the girls. It was a pretty stark contrast to the previous ED, which was angsty yaoi fanservice from start to finish...
- The first ending of Fushigiboshi No Futago Hime is a rather more sedate ballroom dance.
- Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun's ED "Hooray, Hooray, Pom-Pom!" features dancing in both cheerleading outfits and towels. Can you feel the Fan Service?
- Yakitate Japan features afro-clad mentor Ken Matsuhiro disco-dancing in its second ED, "To All Tha Dreamers".
- Rune Soldier Louie opens with a fairly typical "everyone smiles and greets each other, then they fight monsters" opening credits to set up it's ensable of fantasy characters. Then intersperces it with cuts of minor characters in a modern recording studio singing the Theme Song.
- Several OPs and EDs of Haré+Guu had some form of dancing.
- Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu's ED "Hitosashiyubi Quiet!", featuring the entire female cast in maid outfits set to an actual dance done in Akihabara. Haruka's a secret otaku herself, so it was only fitting.
- Most of the closing themes from Kinnikuman. Niku 2x9 Rock 'n Roll and Kinniku Mambo are probably the best examples.
- Wagaya No Oinari Sama's second ending theme, "Shiawase no Kotodama", has the cast dancing at a festival in Super Deformed style.
- Rosario To Vampire Capu2's OP, "DISCOTHEQUE". It is, yes, the six girls of the show disco dancing.
- Kannagi's OP, "motto Hade ni ne!", primarily features Nagi singing and dancing on stage. It doesn't have much to do with the actual show, but it looks nice.
- Kemeko Deluxe's ED, "Puripurin Taisou", featuring the almost-Gonk-ish Kemeko doing some sort of exercise routine.
- Macademi Wasshoi's OP, "MOSO Ranbu", has dancing by various characters, mostly noticeably Tanarot.
- Dai Mahou Touge's OP shows Punie performing an awfully cute little dance (including the YMCA hand gestures at one point), against a background of several well-known Japanese buildings burning bright against the night sky.
- "My Pace", one of the ending themes to Bleach, contains the Filler Arc characters Claude, Nova and Ririn (in their cute little doll forms), along with series mascot Kon, doing a rather psychedelic dance to the incredibly infectious track, intercut with more "serious" still shots.
- The new OP, "Shoujo S", has Rukia and Orihime dancing throughout the song. Matsumoto is also shown with them, but mostly during the silhouetted parts.
- "Little Wish ~lyrical step~", the ED of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's first season, has a Super Deformed Nanoha dancing in place while Yuuno runs around the place.
- How can we forget the two ending themes for the first season of the xxxHoLic anime? The first, "Reason", contained Mokona dancing to the second half of the song (it was asleep during the first half), and the second, "Kagerou", consisted of Maru and Moro air-guitaring the song, accompanied once again by Mokona dancing.
- Sengoku Basara's anime adaptation, featuring the synchronized moves of sengoku-era mooks in the background.
- Despite its serious, romantic themes, Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) starts with a peppy, upbeat, '50s-tinged dance number, "Ordinary Sunday (Steppin' Out)".
- The Sakura Taisen TV series has elements of this in its opening, with shots of the cast performing a dance that goes with the franchise theme song "Geki! Teikokukagekidan," which the cast performed at pretty much all their live shows. There's also an ondo version used as the ending theme for a few episodes.
- 200% no Jumon, ED to Tottoko Hamutarou (Hamtaro). So cute dubbers kept it largely intact.
Live Action TV
- The Bruce Campbell vehicle Jack Of All Trades had possibly the best intro sequence ever.
- The ED of several Super Sentai series. Abaranger (with the Mooks), Dekaranger, Kakuranger, Magiranger, Gekiranger and Go-onger all have this type of theme.
- Kamen Rider Den-O's "Climax Jump" shows the main Imagin cast dancing on the corners of the screen at the end of the song.
- The Drew Carey Show, which used three different Real Song Theme Tunes.
- Sazer X ED. It falls somewhere between Dancing Theme and "exercise routine."
- Ryukendo turned its first OP into a Dancing Theme for the final episode.
- Strangers With Candy ended every episode with a dance party. Yes, this includes the last episode.
- The best known is the "King of Glory" liturgical dance solo by Stephen Colbert - what fewer people know is that this ended a two-parter about a dangerous cult.
- The Cosby Show had several intros for different seasons, and all of them had the main characters do a short dance.
- The Armstrong And Miller Show
- The end credits of Bottom features the silhouettes of the main characters Eddie and Richie dancing, which, predictably, ends in violence.
Video Games
- The Ankh point-n-click adventure game.
- Monkey Island 2 had Guybrush trying to scare away some monkeys that were determined to dance all the way through his serious, dramatic intro.
- Kwik Snax for the ZX Spectrum had an intro showing Dizzy and his egg-shaped pals playing in their band.
- The Playstation 2 game God Hand had most of the characters (friend and foe) dancing in the ending credits.
- Although not full dancing themes, the opening sequences for both Touch Detective games feature scenes of Funghi dancing as a clue that their presentation as serious detective dramas shouldn't be believed.
- Kirby does a short dance at the end of every level, usually splitting into 3 clones.
- Not quite a theme song, but the door-opening dance from Mother 3 has to be seen to be believed. Trust me, you will never laugh harder at an old man shaking his butt.
- There is actually a fan-made Flash animation of Kumatora doing the same dance
- The second and third Disgaea games. The second doesn't have a full dancing theme, but the third makes up for that in spades with an opening that probably owes something to Thriller.
- The entire point of Elite Beat Agents.
- Space Channel 5 does this. A LOT.
Western Animation
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