A close cousin of the Fashion Film, Dance Movies rely on choreography instead of couture. They’re loaded down with iconic songs, and are either about winning some sort of contest, or having something to prove, or both. For whatever reason, Dance Movies often promote the idea that learning to dance (be it ballet, hip hop, ballroom, or square) will get you out of the ‘hood and onto bigger and better things.
Since dancing generally requires a partner, romance is inevitable, thought not omnipresent. This plot device succeeds largely because all the women who were wallflowers in high school want to believe that if someone had only taught them to dance, they would have fallen in love and lived happily ever after. Don’t ruin it for us.
Also squashed into the category of Dance Movies are movie musicals – but not all of them. The musical is that strange beast which can appeal to all audiences, or only some. Typically, a Dude-Friendly Musical can be identified by the red, white, and black color palette.
