History Main / DancingIsSeriousBusiness

* The video for Music/KatyPerry's "Hot & Cold" features her as a bride at the altar, where the groom hesitates before saying "I do." She, and some other spurned brides, arm themselves with baseball bats, corner him... and then break into dance.

* The video for "Helena" by Music/MyChemicalRomance begins with mourners filling a church for a funeral and then dancing around the coffin. At the bridge, they all bow their heads in prayer and the corpse gets up and does a ballet dance through the center aisle.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Pretty much every musical that isn't a comedy is made of this trope. ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' is a notable example. The gang-rumble at the center of the show is either a well-choreographed but very stylized knife fight that involves dancing, or else a well-choreographed but very stylized dance-off that involves knives.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' parodied this in [[Recap/SouthParkS8E4YouGotFdInTheA "You got F'd in the A!"]]

** When trouble strikes (such as a prison-wide blackout), prison guard Bailey is compelled to do the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcHWh2JUIOs Panic Dance]] as passed down in his family for generations. Why? Because someone has to.

* After a terrible Philadelphia Eagles game, a Website/{{Facebook}} member snidely commented that "the Eagles played like they were wearing tutus." Incensed at this, a member of the Pennsylvania Ballet offered up a [[http://www.someecards.com/news/sports/pennsylvania-ballet-eagles-play-like-they-were-wearing-tutus/ blistering editorial]] that described how difficult the life of a ballerina was and suggested that the comment was an insult to the dancers rather than the football players, capping it off with this gem: "So no, the Eagles have not played like they were wearing tutus. If they had, Chip Kelly would still be a head coach and we'd all be looking forward to the playoffs."

* The movie ''Film/{{Breakin}}'' featured the classic "pinning of all hopes and dreams on a dance routine," but its strangely-titled sequel ''Film/Breakin2ElectricBoogaloo'' ratcheted up the crazy by not only using breakdancing as a means to save the [[SavingTheOrphanage perpetually-imperiled youth center]], but also as a form of ''combat''. No, not like a DanceBattler, but rather two teams of enemies facing off, breakdancing, and then deciding --as a group-- who won the battle. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boL9o0u0Dig What, do you think we're kidding?]]

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', with the fate of an entire planet at stake, Quill challenges [[spoiler:Ronan the Accuser]] to a dance-off. [[spoiler:It is a distraction. Ronan is extremely confused and temporarily stops his attempt to destroy the planet while he tries to figure out what is going on. This give Rocket time to fix his BFG and destroy the source of Ronan's power.]]

** As does the (far too sensuous for the time it is set in) dance of Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones in ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro''.

* Music/MichaelJackson was the king of this trope. It started when he was still a part of Music/TheJacksonFive with songs like "Dancing Machine", "Blame It On The Boogie" and "Shake Your Body Down To The Ground" and went on as an adult superstar on ''Music/OffTheWall'' with tracks like "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough", "Off The Wall" and "Burn This Disco Out". You might think a ZombieApocalypse horror movie might be the wrong time to suddenly break out into dance, but somehow he made it work in "[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Thriller]]". In "Beat It," he actually puts a stop to a gang-war through the power of dance. [[SerialEscalation Think that's enough]]? The film for "Smooth Criminal" boasted fantastic cinematography that accentuated the dancing to the max.

* At ''Wrestling/{{CZW}} Last Team Standing'' 2006 the crowd demanded to see a dance off between Wrestling/ClaudioCastagnoli and Human Tornado when Castagnoli and Wrestling/ChrisHero took on Tornado and Ruckus.

* Shane Strickland vs ACH at the International Wrestling Cartel. More people seem to remember their dance off than any match they had. Neither winning the 2013 [[TournamentArc Super Indy]] probably doesn't help.

** When trouble strikes (such as a prisonwide blackout), prison guard Bailey is compelled to do the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcHWh2JUIOs Panic Dance]] as passed down in his family for generations. Why? Because someone has to.

* ''VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan'' and its American counterpart ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents''. In EBA, only dancing can cure a sick athelete and stop an alien invasion.

* The Vanu Vanu of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' treat the Sundrop Dance with the upmost importance. The Sundrop Dance is a dance performed before battle that is a measure of the dancer's strength and can cow weaker opponents without any violence.

* The Norwegian folk dance movement is rigidly working for the preservation of the "correct" traditional dance modes, including details like when and where to "bounce" in a 3/4 dance (often called a "springar" or "pols"). Woe betide those who screw this up. The fact that the dancers enter a number of contests each year may heaten this tension many notches. To list a couple of examples: Early in TheNewTens, a fist fight nearly broke out over which dancer ''should'' have won the traditional male dance "halling". In 1992, an ''entire valley'' ended up in a severe FlameWar over how to dance the 3/4 dance correctly. It involved, among other things, exclusion, threatening letters, a lot of mental bruises and a number of performers just up and quitting for ''years''. Norwegian folk dancing is ''definitely'' serious business.

* At the unauthorized ''Wrestling/{{R|ingOfHonor}}OH A Night Of Hoopla'', Davey Richards expressed his frustration with a "pants off dance off" being held between the "Hoopla Hotties" Wrestling/ScarletBordeaux, Seleziya Sparx and Val Malone, talking about the promotion's efforts to present a quality wrestling product, before concluding the only proper way to defend the honor of all the great wrestlers that came before him was to enter the contest himself and out dance the House Of Truth's [[PerkyFemaleMinion minions]] while leaving his pants on!

* In ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'', James Bond (Sean Connery) turns Domino (Kim Basinger) away from Emilio Largo in an elaborate tango. The right to which he won by defeating Largo in a game.

* In ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', Tony Manero (played by John Travolta) basically pins his entire future on winning a dance contest. Justified as Tony is from a poor, slightly abusive family, is stuck in a dead-end job, and is affected by gang violence. He has nothing else to enjoy and pin his hopes on but dancing.

* ''Film/TheyShootHorsesDontThey?'' is a {{Deconstruction}} based on actual exploitative dance contests during the Great Depression.

** Parodied on ''Series/FlightOfTheConchords'' with "Bret's Angry Dance." When the band breaks up, the only way to vent his frustrations is by dancing masculinely in a warehouse. Unlike Bacon, Bret [=McKenzie=] is a trained dancer, so he did the heavy lifting and heavier dancing himself.
* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', with the fate of an entire planet at stake, Quill challenges [[spoiler: Ronan the Accusser]] to a dance-off. [[spoiler: It is a distraction. Ronan is extremely confused and temporarily stops his attempt to destroy the planet while he tries to figure out what is going on. This give Rocket time to fix his BFG and destroy the source of Ronan's power.]]
** Also parodied in ''Film/HotRod'', although it's in a forest and the dancing...isn't that great.
** Also parodied in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' by Gazorpazorp

* There was a rash of these in the '00s: ''Take the Lead'' and the Creator/DisneyChannel movie ''Gotta Kick It Up!'' were SaveOurStudents stories; ''You Got Served'', the ''Step Up'' movies and ''Save the Last Dance'' all involved gang violence wherein somebody got shot; ''Stomp the Yard'' (which also started with a murder) and ''How She Move'' had pulling-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-and-the-magic-of-dance plots. In 2009 The Wayans brothers made a parody movie for {{Creator/MTV}} called ''Dance Flick''.
** At least in the case of ''Take The Lead'', it was BasedOnATrueStory, though the real-life Pierre Dulaine [[HistoricalBeautyUpdate wishes he looked like Antonio Banderas]]. And the real kids were in many cases younger (see ''Mad Hot Ballroom'' for the real program.)

--> ''Little child, little child won't you dance with me?''

[[folder:Mythology]]

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/BronzeSkinInc'' the client Dandara starts dancing wildly while listening to the legendary playlist while being tanned by Dante and Julia. It wouldn't be a problem if Dandara wasn't a giantess.
[[/folder]]

* The Norwegian folk dance movement is rigidly working for the preservation of the "correct" traditional dance modes, including details like when and where to "bounce" in a 3/4 dance (often called a "springar" or "pols"). Woe betide those who screw this up. The fact that the dancers enter a number of contests each year, may heaten this tension many notches. To list a couple of examples: Early in TheNewTens, a fist fight nearly broke out over which dancer ''should'' have won the traditional male dance "halling". In 1992, an ''entire valley'' ended up in a severe FlameWar over how to dance the 3/4 dance correctly. It involved, among other things, exclusion, threatening letters, a lot of mental bruises and a number of performers just up and quitting for ''years''. Norwegian folk dancing is ''definitely'' serious business.

* Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}. Dance-offs between wrestlers could break out in the middle of matches, often started by the Osirian Portal. Sometimes it wasn't even to see who was better, it was just for fun.
* At ''Wrestling/{{CZW}} Last Team Standing'' 2006 the crowd demanded to see a dance of between Wrestling/ClaudioCastagnoli and Human Tornado when Castagnoli and Wrestling/ChrisHero took on Tornado and Ruckus.
* Before she managed to score victory in Wrestling/{{WSU}}, it was suggested Athena hadn't won yet because she wasn't doing spinaroonies like her school's [[Wrestling/BookerT namesake.]]
* At the unauthorized ''Wrestling/{{R|ingOfHonor}}OH A Night Of Hoopla'', Davey Richards expressed his frustration with a "pants off dance off" being held between the "Hoopla Hotties" Scarlet Bordeaux, Seleziya Sparx and Val Malone, taking about the promotion's efforts to present a quality wrestling product, before concluding the only proper way to defend the honor of all the great wrestlers that came before him was to enter the contest himself and out dance the House Of Truth's [[PerkyFemaleMinion minions]] while leaving his pants on!
* Shane Strickland vs ACH at the International Wrestling Cartel. More people seem to remember their dance off than any match they had.

* After a terrible Philadelphia Eagles game, a Website/{{Facebook}} member snidely commented that "the Eagles played like they were wearing tutus." Incensed at this, a member of the Pennsylvania Ballet offered up a [[http://www.someecards.com/news/sports/pennsylvania-ballet-eagles-play-like-they-were-wearing-tutus/ blistering editorial]] that described how difficult the life of a ballerina was and suggested that the comment was an insult to the dancers rather than the football players, capping it off with this gem: "So no, the Eagles have not played like they were wearing tutus. If they had, Chip Kelly would still be a head coach and we'd all be looking forward to the playoffs.

* ''Film/WhiteNights'''s setting is a Soviet prison during the Cold War. A famous Russian ballet dancer who defected is in a terrible situation when he is recaptured by Soviets during a plane crash. The Soviets bring a supposedly loyal tap dancer to help teach the defector the error of his ways, and pressure him to make political statements. These two dancers express their angst and conflict while dancing.

* In ''Film/DirtyDancing'', much more is riding on Baby learning to dance than Johnny not being able to do a dance exhibition at another resort and thus suffering professional embarrassment.
* ''Film/CMeDance'' is about a girl whose faith in God is apparently dependent on her ability to dance. When she can't dance due to some rare blood disease, she loses faith. Her father prays that she returns to Christianity and regains the strength to fulfill her dream of dancing. God apparently not only obliges by making her better, He makes her gift of dance so great that people who see her dance apparently have religious epiphanies and convert to Christianity instantly! Satan, upset by her ability to bring people to God that easily, then aims all his evil energy at preventing her from dancing. It should be noted that this film '''''is not a parody or a comedy'''''; they were trying to be serious. Quite clearly, Dancing Is Serious Business.

* In ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', Tony Manero (played by John Travolta) basically pins his entire future on winning a dance contest. Justified as Tony is from a poor, slightly abusive family, is stuck in a dead-end job, and is affected by gang violence. He has nothing else to enjoy and pin his hopes on but dancing.
* ''Film/FlashDance'' has Alex (played by Jennifer Beals) pining her own entire future on her audition for the Pittsburgh Conservatory.
* The movie ''Film/{{Breakin}}'' featured the classic "pinning of all hopes and dreams on a dance routine," but its strangely-titled sequel ''Film/Breakin2ElectricBoogaloo'' ratcheted up the crazy by not only using breakdancing as a means to save the [[SavingTheOrphanage perpetually-imperiled youth center]], but also as a form of ''combat''. No, not like a DanceBattler, but rather two teams of enemies facing off, breakdancing, and then deciding --as a group-- who won the battle. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boL9o0u0Dig What, do you think we're kidding?]]
* There was a rash of these in the '00s: ''Take the Lead'' and the Creator/DisneyChannel movie ''Gotta Kick It Up!'' were SaveOurStudents stories; ''You Got Served'', the ''Step Up'' movies and ''Save the Last Dance'' all involved gang violence wherein somebody got shot; ''Stomp the Yard'' (which also started with a murder) and ''How She Move'' had pulling-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-and-the-magic-of-dance plots. In 2009 The Wayans brothers made a parody movie for {{Creator/MTV}} called ''Dance Flick''.
** At least in the case of ''Take The Lead'', it was BasedOnATrueStory, though the real-life Pierre Dulaine [[HistoricalBeautyUpdate wishes he looked like Antonio Banderas]]. And the real kids were in many cases younger (see ''Mad Hot Ballroom'' for the real program.)
* ''Film/BillyElliot'' qualifies as this at the point where the striking miner father almost becomes a scab for the money to send Billy to ballet school so the kid can have a better chance at life.

* The {{documentary}} ''Film/{{Pina}}'' is about the late choreographer, Pina Bausch, and her dancers speak about her in awe as an artist the way a sculptor would speak about Michelangelo as they perform the dances she developed.
* ''Film/AnotherCinderellaStory''. It's a modern version of Cinderella (see above), so it actually makes sense to be about a dancer.

* In ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'', James Bond (Sean Connery) turns Domino (Kim Basinger) away from Emilio Largo in an elaborate tango. The right to which he won by defeating Largo in a game.
* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', with the fate of an entire planet at stake, Quill challenges [[spoiler: Ronan the Accusser]] to a dance-off. [[spoiler: It is a distraction. Ronan is extremely confused and temporarily stops his attempt to destroy the planet while he tries to figure out what is going on. This give Rocket time to fix his BFG and destroy the source of Ronan's power.]]
* ''Film/BlackSwan'' is a {{Deconstruction}} of this, following a ballerina who basically destroys her life, body, and sanity in an obsessive quest to give the perfect performance in ''Theatre/SwanLake''. The insanity of treating dancing [[SeriousBusiness so seriously]] is called out, as is the fact that doing so looks rather pathetic when seen from an outside view; at one point, Nina rambles about ''Swan Lake'' and ballet to two guys with her typical obsessiveness, and the two can’t even pretend to find it interesting.

[[quoteright:330:[[Film/DirtyDancing https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6128b0ecf7db67dce3f468fa7ca38f90.jpg]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/CultistSimulator'', Heart-aspect cults are all about dancing. Dancing to the eldritch, unceasing, sanity-destroying rhythm of [[EldritchAbomination the Thunderheart]], to be precise.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' parodied this in [[YouGotServed "You got F'd in the A!"]]

* Cinderella's salvation more or less comes from dancing at a ball.

** In 1940 movie ''Film/TheMarkOfZorro'' the elaborate and energetic dance of Don Diego Vega (Tyrone Power) and Lolita Quintero (Linda Darnell) brings the two lovebirds closer together.