Let's Dance

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues...

"Let's dance... and by dance, I mean let's try to kill each other!"

— Wade Wilson/Deadpool, Deadpool (2016)

A Stock Pre-Asskicking One-Liner, most often heard right before an action scene.

The Hero comes across a random Mook (sometimes an elite one), or even the Big Bad themselves. The Hero announces their intention to fight/kill said bad guy, by uttering this phrase. Sometimes they'll also smile a bit or even laugh a little sadistically. Other times, this is accompanied by a cracking of knuckles, or even their neck.

Highly related to Bring It (and can overlap with such if used as an answer to someone wanting to fight).

Dance Battler takes this literally.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Naruto — Madara Uchiha does this a lot.
  "Let's have another dance, shall we?"
  "Seems you have a few dance moves left."
  "How could you have danced this long?"
• Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence: Batou easily shoots his way through a roomful of Yakuza thugs without difficulty. Then a Yakuza cyborg lurches into the room, wielding a huge arm-claw. Batou just smiles and starts to maneuver around him. "Bring it on, Crab. You ain't too bright if you want to dance with me."
• Amagi Hitsugi of Hayate × Blade has used this line in a duel as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner.
  Hitsugi: "Now then... Hoshikawa-san... Let us dance!"

Comic Books

• Xadhoom's catchphrase in Paperinik New Adventures. Also with variations. A particularly satisfying one was, after a particularly bad day, she asked the Evronian responsible for it what you do in a ballroom, and disintegrated him when he said "You dance?".
• Subverted by Ultimate Spider-Man with its version of Spider-Man failing to stop the criminal who would kill Uncle Ben: Peter, in response to the crook yelling at him to get out of the way, sarcastically asks him "shall we dance?", but then stands aside and lets him escape.

Comic Strips

• Julius, owner of the Liberty Meadows animal sanctuary, when he prepares to catch his nemesis, Khan the giant catfish: "Let's dance, Khan."

Fan Works

• Arc Phantoms has Ame-no-uzume state this in Yuzu's awakening.
  "Let us bring the sun out of hiding. Let us not wait for a knight to save us. Say my name...and let's dance!"
• The Magic of Torchwood: Jack Harkness to Bellatrix Lestrange.
• In the Enterprise Parody Fic "Farce Contact", the MACHOS shout "Let's rock!" as per Aliens.
  Faith of the Heart blared from the comm system.
  "That's not rock, that's some 70's pop tune by Diane Warren!"
  "But it's working, sir. The Suliban are fleeing in terror."

Films — Live-Action

• Predator 2. When police officer Jerry Lambert confronts the title creature in the subway car, his last words are "Let's dance!"
• Antonio Banderas in Desperado.
  (neck crack) "Let's play."
• Aliens. Just before the Marines fight the xenomorphs for the first time:
  Vasquez: "Let's rock!" (opens fire with machine gun)
• Mortal Kombat: The Movie: This is Johnny Cage's Pre-Asskicking One-Liner, which he delivers twice. Once is to a bunch of mooks he's fighting for what turns out to be a film shoot. The other is to Goro as he's Throwing Down the Gauntlet, just before delivering the mother of all Groin Attacks to the four-armed powerhouse.
• In Full Metal Jacket, Cowboy says "Let's Dance" just before deploying his squad to search for a sniper they know is in the area.
• In Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Ron Burgundy himself uses this phrase right before a fight:
  Ron Burgundy: Let's dance, dickweed.
  Wes Mantooth: You wanna dance, Burgundy? (whips out a knife) I wanna polka.
• Happens in Role Models:
  Danny: God dammit, Ronnie!
  Ronnie Shields: What? Because I'm black you think I did it?
  Danny: No, because you did it is why I think you did it. Let me tell you something, I'll hit you. I will hit a child. I've never done that before, but I will punch you in the face.
  Ronnie Shields: Let's dance, Ben Affleck!
• In Van Wilder, one of the antagonists challenges the titular slacker with "Let's Dance", only to have Wilder respond with "It's a good day to die."
• Die Hard with a Vengeance, bomb squad technician Charlie Veiss says this to a bomb he's attempting to defuse:
  "Six booby traps, four dead ends, "and a Partridge in a pear tree." Okay, honey. Let's dance."
• Apocalypse Now. Colonel Kilgore "turning on the music" as his helicopters are about to attack.
  "Eagle Thrust, put on psy war op. Make it loud. This is a Romeo Foxtrot. Shall we dance?"
• William to Adhemar in A Knight's Tale, just before a tournament:
  "Let's dance, you and I."
• Used in Deadpool. He then explains that by that he means "Let's try to kill each other."
• Ghost in the Shell (2017). Yakuza thugs handcuff Major to a stripper pole in a private room of their nightclub and have fun zapping her with a Static Stun Gun. One of the goons suggests she "dance" and they have a little fun. But as Major points out, she's not built for dancing.
• J-Men Forever. Superhero The Lone Star is brawling with one of the Lightning Bug's thugs.
  The Lone Star: If I wanted to dance I'd have picked my own partner!
  Thug: Pick this! (hurls Powerful Pick)

Literature

• In The Wheel of Time book The Dragon Reborn a small group of battle-ready Aiel taunt a Myrddraal with the phrase "Dance with me, Eyeless." The Aiel use the term 'dance' as a metaphor for fighting; they will often say 'dance the spears.'
• John Ringo's A Hymn Before Battle:
  "This is what I promise, nothing more. We are going to stick this operation up the Posleen's ass, sideways. I guaran-fuckin'-tee that. I don't guarantee that any of us will be around to see it. That is not part of the bargain," he hissed.
  "So, to do that, we are going to get up on our damn feet and go out and dance with the devil. We may lead, or we may follow. But we are gonna do the damn dance, am I understood?" he whispered.
  "Yes, sir."
  "God dammit, quit sounding off like a bunch of fuckin' hairdressers!" he shouted.
  "Yessir!"
  "What are we gonna do?"
  "Fight?" "Get our asses kicked?" "Kick some butt?"
  "We're gonna dance, sir," said Wiznowski, disconnecting from the power system.
  "We are gonna dance. Now, what are we gonna do?"
  "We're gonna dance, sir."
  "Dammit . . ."
  "WE'RE GONNA DANCE, SIR!" they sounded off.
  "WHO'RE WE GONNA DANCE WITH?"
  "THE DEVIL!"
  "WE GONNA LEAD OR FOLLOW?"
  "WE'RE GONNA LEAD!"
  "DAMN STRAIGHT! SCOUTS OUT!"
• The Audubon Ballroom from the Honor Harrington series uses "Shall we dance?" as a Battle Cry, just before proceeding to kick slaver ass.

Live-Action TV

• Married... with Children Al Bundy's version was "Let's rock."
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Lampshaded in "Fool for Love" for a typical Spuffy moment. Spike is telling Buffy how he killed two previous Slayers.
    Spike: The first was all business but the second, she had a touch of your style. She was cunning, resourceful... oh, did I mention? Hot. I could have danced all night with that one.
    Buffy: You think we're dancing?
    Spike: That's all we've ever done.
  • Sure enough when we see a flashback of Spike fighting that particular Slayer in "Lies My Parents Told Me":
    Spike: I spent a long time trying to track you down. Don't want the dance to end so soon, do you, Nikki? The music's just starting, isn't it?
• Invoked as episode titles in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 1's "Duet", and Season 6's "Waltz". Both are character pieces in which two adversaries spar verbally.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "Q Who", the all-powerful alien trickster hurls the Enterprise into Borg space to see how Humanity deals with an Outside-Context Problem.
  Riker: Why?
  Q: "Why?" Why, to give you a taste of your future. A preview of things to come. Con permiso, Capitan. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if you can dance.
• In the final scene of The Punisher (2017), two criminal gangs are about to come to blows when Frank Castle does a Walk-In Chime-In.
  Gangbanger: Oh, you wanna dance? Is that what this is? (everyone draws their guns)
  Frank: HEY! (enter the Punisher) I'll dance with ya. (opens fire with Guns Akimbo)

Music

• Skyclad expects to
  Take your partners for our civil war dance
• David Bowie has a song and an album titled Let's Dance, with the album artwork depicting Bowie in a fighting stance.

Video Games

• Seraphim01/Serah from Silhouette Mirage says this when her health is reduces to about two-thirds.
• Shinobu Jacobs, the perky ninja assassin sidekick to Travis Touchdown says a few variations of this in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.
• A variation appears in The Witcher saga, with a Psycho for Hire calling for music before starting a fight. Geralt himself uses the same phrase in the game.
• Dimitri in Sly 2: Band of Thieves says "Let's Dance!" right before the boss battle after Sly insults his taste in clothing.
• This is one of Raphael's opening lines in Soulcalibur 2.
• Tieger to a zombified Grissom as a You Shall Not Pass!, in the ending of Vagrant Story.
  "And now the slowest dance begins, partner. 'Tis a fine tomb we shall share."
• This is Mileena's intro quote in Mortal Kombat 9.
• The Street Fighter characters Elena and Eagle use the "Shall we dance?" variant.
• Star Control II has Orz who speak Starfish Language even after the Universal Translator, talk about battles as...
  Nnnnnggggaaaahhhhh!!!!!! It is *dancing*!!!!
• Grandia II, before the boss fight with Melfice.
  Melfice: Dance with me, brother.
• Dragon Age II:
  • Said by Silly Hawke to the Arishok when he/she accepts a duel with him.
  • Also one of Varric's lines during the Scarface portion of his Act 2 companion quest.
• In Mass Effect 3, James Vega challenges Shepard to a sparring match the first time they talk on-board the Normandy. "Think you can dance and talk at the same time?"
• In Mega Man Zero 4, Noble Mandrago will invoke this during her first fight against Zero.
  Noble Mandrago: Odoranai? (Shall we dance?)
• Devil May Cry 4:
  • One of Nero's taunt is to extend his (demonic) hand in a gentlemanly manner and ask "Shall we dance?". Said hand is also used for tossing enemies around like ragdolls, by the way.
  • Dante, in the meantime, prefers "Let's rock!"
• Bayonetta and its first sequel end with the titular character shouting, "Let's dance, boys!" before blasting apart angels.
• Skies of Arcadia: This is the phrase that Gilder says whenever he uses the "Gunslinger" super move attack.
• In BlazBlue, said to Ragna by Hazama before a fight. He even seems to put on a faux southern drawl just to be extra hammy.
• Alpha Protocol has Brayko using a variation of this prior to his battle.
  "You came for a fight, you got one, buddy. Put on your red shoes, let's dance..."
• This is a favored line of Sam Rodrigues in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Raiden says this to Senator Armstrong when he fights him using Sam's borrowed sword as an homage to the man.
• Xigbar in Kingdom Hearts II uses a one-sided version, calling out "Let's see how you dance!" when he's about to perform his Desperation Attack. He stays stationary (and invincible) the whole time, but he makes you put on the moves by firing a storm of bullets at you from all angles.
• The signature battle entry quote of nearly every character in Senran Kagura, tweaked for each school's philosophy:
  Hanzo Academy: I'll show you a dance cloaked in shadow!
  Homura Crimson Squad: I sacrifice myself to the will of our dance!
  Hebijo Academy: I dance for the honor of evil!
  Kagura Festival Executives: Dance in the festival of midsummer!
  Gessen Death Cram School: Sink into the dreams of sleeping souls!
• Guilty Gear: "Heaven or Hell? Duel 1! Let's ROCK!"
• Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money's Dean Domino's boast before he turns hostile includes a variant:
  ...So put your dancing shoes on - let's go.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: From Moebius, during the opening chapter of the game, after taking a break from the fight to explain (and disparage) Noah and Mio's first Interlink:
  "You got the picture? No further questions? Then let's get back on the dance floor!"

Web Comics

• Sinfest got this among other corny lines in the Ninja Theatre.

Web Original

• Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice. Cowboy Cop Steel tells his Robot Buddy A55 to play some action music for the upcoming shoot-out.
  Steel: (Dramatic Gun Cock) OK fudge-suckers, let's dance!
  Robot plays fairground music. Criminals gape in disbelief.
  Steel: I ask you to do one goddamn thing...

Western Animation

• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
  Terry McGinnis: Let's dance, bozo.
• Another instance in the DC Animated Universe: When Lobo takes on the entire Justice League (sans Superman and Batman) in "Hereafter".
• The Penguins of Madagascar: As Skipper prepares to fight the Rat King, he says, "Let's dance. I'll lead."
• One of the Spammers from Bender's Big Score says, "You've got no code, no porn, and you're ugly. Let's dance!" just before evicting our heroes as they've taken all their stuff.
• Kung Fu Panda. Justified in Secrets of the Furious Five when a young Viper uses her skills as a ribbon-dancer to take down a gorilla bandit.
• In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Alex has to fight another lion as part of a rite of passage. When the other lion says, "Let's dance," Alex takes it literally and does a dance routine out of West Side Story. He gets clobbered.
• American Dragon: Jake Long gives us this right before Jake's final battle with the Huntsclan.
  The Huntsman: Before I wish for your annihilation, Any Last Words?
  Jake: Well, considering the occasion, I have just two: Let's dance!
• The Spectacular Spider-Man has Spidey deliver this line before his Battle in the Center of the Mind with the Venom Symbiote:
  Spider-Man: Now, mudstain—shall we dance?

Real Life

• Todd Beamer, on the ill-fated flight 93. "Let's roll."
• Before the Battle of Falkirk, William Wallace is quoted as saying "I have brought you to the revel, now dance if you can!"

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Put on your red shoes and dance the blues!

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