There are a lot of reasons characters may not want to dance. Dancing is exhausting, takes a lot of skill, and can look embarrassing if you're new to it — especially when surrounded by tons of other people.
In other cases, the dance partner could be an Abhorrent Admirer, the type that doesn't care if they say no. If there's an audience, they may expect them to cave into the social pressure, they want to show off their beloved to everyone else, maybe it's a power play, or maybe they think they're that entitled to it.
Compare Involuntary Dance, where the character is forced to dance and cannot stop.
See also Entitled to Have You, No Sense of Personal Space, Oblivious to Hatred, and It's All About Me. Can overlap with I Can't Dance.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In the opening of Honoo no Alpen Rose, we see Jeudi dancing with Count Georges de Gourmant, and she visibly doesn't want it. It then changes to Jeudi dancing with Lundi, and she's happy. In the series itself, Gourmant forces this on Jeudi at the grand ball at his palace, and no one objects to the fact that a fully grown adult is dancing with a thirteen-year-old child in this manner.note
- Spy X Family: In the cruise ship arc Yor grabs a hitman (who is more than twice her size) by both hands in the ship's ballroom, forcibly "dances" him to a chair, and knocks him out leaving him in the chair as if he had sat down in exhaustion.
Comic Books
- Iceman (2017): In issue #4, Bobby Drake is attending a party, when Daken, Wolverine's son, intercepts him and forces the X-Man to dance with him. While they dance, they keep pushing each other's buttons.
- In the third volume of Lazarus there is a grand meeting of the various Families that rule the Feudal Future. Main character Forever Carlyle is dancing with her love interest Joacquim when Dr. Jakob Hock, her father's Arch-Enemy, forcibly cuts in and asks her to dance in a way so that she cannot say no without being rude. Worse yet, Hock apparently uses the opportunity to touch her and leer at her throughout the dance, leaving the Four-Star Badass who has seen plenty of death and battle feeling deeply disturbed afterward.
Fan Works
- The Rigel Black Chronicles: When "Rigel" is invited to high society events, Harry isn't keen on dancing with anyone, partly because she doesn't enjoy it much, and partly because someone might notice that she isn't nearly as skilled as the real Arcturus Black. She isn't always able to avoid it, though; she manages to arrange a substitute when standing Pansy up so that Pansy won't be too miffed, but when she later attends a dance as herself, with the Parkinsons hosting, Pansy pins her down wanting to dance the current set, so she can't get out of it without being extremely rude.
Pansy: Rigel once refused me a dance, and I was rather heartbroken. If you turn me away, too, I shall develop a complex.
Films — Animated
- Cats Don't Dance: Danny Cat initiates an impromptu music session with the various Funny Animals gathered in the alley beside Mammoth Studios. The music catches the ear of Ice Queen Sawyer, who comes to investigate. Danny Cat invites her to be his dance partner, but she declines. Tilly Hippo, however, throws her massive hips at the right moment, which sends Sawyer careening into the spotlight. Rather than look completely foolish, Sawyer demonstrates a few quick steps. "Not bad," comments Danny. "A little rusty, but who's perfect?" That barb triggers Sawyer to bring her dance skills up to the redline, so she and Danny put on quite the show.
- The climax of Coco has one character trying to take something from another during a live stage performance by forcibly pulling them into a dance. This allows them to cover up their actions from the in-universe audience.
- Frozen: Played for Laughs. Elsa "sacrifices" Anna to the Duke of Wesselton after saying she herself doesn't dance. She gives Anna a small smile and a soft "Sorry" as the Duke drags her off to dance.
- Puss in Boots: At one point, Humpty and the Golden Goose are dancing, while Puss and Kitty are also dancing. Humpty at one point makes them swap partners against their will.
- Shrek 2: During the climax, Fiona is pressured to dance with "Shrek" (really, Prince Charming) despite being visibly uncomfortable.
Films — Live-Action
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me: Austin is drawn to the beautiful and flirty Felicity Shagwell. Before he can embrace her, Robin Swallows suddenly pops up in between them, pushing Austin across the dance floor and away from Felicity, to Austin's distress.
Austin: (reaches for Felicity) I want! I want!!
- Back to the Future Part III: Buford Tannen tries to force Clara to dance with him, claiming he'll take Doc Brown's $80 debt out of her. He then tells her, holding her close, "You can do something that's worth $80, can't you?" She tells him he's underestimating her and executes a Groin Attack to free herself.
- In Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, the titular character's first altercation is against some drunken sailors who are, at a party they crashed, forcing one of the female guests to dance with them.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Played for laughs when Professor McGonagall makes Ron dance with her, which he does with great reluctance, to demonstrate dancing for the Yule Ball. Fred and George say that they will never let Ron forget this. This sets the scene for Harry and Ron facing the difficult task of finding dance partners for the ball and having to ask girls to dance with them.
- The plot of Silver Linings Playbook involves Tiffany enlisting her neighbor Pat to be her partner in a dance competition in exchange for her helping him reconcile with his estranged wife.
- During White Christmas Phil and Judy have no idea why Betty has suddenly cooled where Bob is concerned. Bob has no idea either, so is surprised when she stops dancing with him as soon as possible. Phil and Judy start dancing with Betty and Bob and then attempt to change partners. Betty doesn't even put on a front this time, running away immediately.
Literature
- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. has Margaret avoid dancing with Norman Fishbein during the Thanksgiving square dance as she thinks he's a drip, and she also avoids Class Clown Freddy Barnett because she's sure he'll tease her about not looking like more developed Laura Danker in her sweater.
- The titular protagonist of the first Big Nate book, Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, mentions among his worst days that he was stuck dancing with Kim Cressley.
- Downplayed Trope in Going Postal, where Adora Belle doesn't actually refuse to dance with Moist in the ruins of the Post Office, but is too bewildered by the idea to express an opinion, leading to him assuming consent. Not so downplayed in the film adaptation, where she does refuse, and he ignores this.
Live-Action TV
- In Doctor Who "The Giggle", the Toymaker and his duplicates storm UNIT headquarters to the tune of "Spice Up Your Life" by the Spice Girls. He drags Kate and Mel into a forced dance to both mock them and demonstrate his power over them before sending both spinning across the floor and into the nearest wall. This illustrates his playful Large Ham personality as well as how easily he can mess with the heroes for giggles.
Music
- Fleetwood Mac: Downplayed in the video for "Gypsy", which includes a scene where the characters played by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks dance together. This video was shot during the time when all of the relationships in the band had blown up and tensions were strained, to put it mildly, so Nicks was not happy at all to interact with Buckingham that closely.
Nicks: We weren't getting along well then. I didn't want to be anywhere near him; I certainly didn't want to be in his arms. [...] If you watch the video, you'll see I wasn't happy. And he wasn't a very good dancer.
- In Joyce Grenfell's comic song "Stately as a Galleon", Mrs Fanshaw laments that there are more women than men at her dance club, so she has to dance with another woman, Mrs Tiverton, rather than one of the men.
Theatre
- In the Act I finale of Don Giovanni, Leporello forces Masetto to dance with him so he won't interfere as Don Giovanni hones in on Masetto's fiancée Zerlina. Depending on the staging, Don Giovanni's own dancing with Zerlina – who has been warned to be on her guard against him – may also be forced on her. At any rate, once he maneuvers her offstage, he shifts from dancing to trying to rape her.
- Tanz Der Vampire: In the number Wenn Liebe in dir ist ("When Love is Inside You"), Herbert, vampire Graf Von Krolock's son, forces Alfred, a human vampire hunter, to dance a waltz with him in his room. Alfred is visibly uncomfortable with this since Herbert has been openly flirting with him beforehand, to his great discomfort.
Web Videos
- Empires SMP: In the official musical adaptation of Season 1, as a metaphorical interpretation of the source material, the song "It Takes Two to Tango" features Xornoth corrupting Sausage and Joey to join his side while tormenting Shrub and Scott. In each segment for the music video, Xornoth decides to drag his victim along to dance; it's questionable how voluntary the former two have it, since they become Brainwashed and Crazy, but the latter two are clearly uncomfortable with the arrangement.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time: In the "Stakes" mini-series, The Vampire King forces a reluctant and uncomfortable cow to dance with him.
- Arthur: "Dancing Fools" revolves around some of the kids taking dancing lessons. George, who's only there because his mom is friends with the dance instructor, and Francine, who got forced into doing it, are paired up together unwillingly... but turn out to be pretty good together. Additionally, D.W. gets stuck with the Tibble Twins, who are the worst dancers in the class.
- Bunsen Is a Beast: At the end of "Wilda Beast", Mikey is forced into a dance by Abhorrent Admirer Amanda Killman.
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: In the The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment, Brom Bones is trying to get Ichabod Crane away from Kathrina Von Tassel during the Halloween dance. Brom gets the idea to get a short, fat woman (called Tilda in the script) to dance with Ichabod. Tilda, however, only wants to dance with Brom, who then finds it impossible to shake her off.
- The closing gag of Josie and the Pussycats thwarting the Mad Scientist Greenthumb has the Power Trio perform a short set in the greenhouse. There, the wicked doctor's Botanical Abominations seem to groove to the music. One creature-plant taps Alexandra on the shoulder, then takes her in its tendrils and starts dancing with her. Alexandra, thorny as ever, wants none of this, but the creatures are bigger and stronger than she is, so she gets passed from one tendrilled abomination to the next.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Three's a Crowd", Discord dances with Twilight during the song "Glass of Water" just to be annoying and dramatic.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: During the Princess Prom episode, Adora is forced to slow dance with Catra to maintain the peace enforced during said prom (meaning that Rebellion and Horde members can't fight one another until the ball is over).
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Tango Tangle", SpongeBob is Pearl's dance partner. She's less than enthused about it, particularly because SpongeBob is only there because Mr. Krabs ordered him to be her tango partner.
