Top 30 Celebrities That Are Surprisingly Good Dancers
They could've danced all night... Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for those celebs that are sneaky good at busting a move.
Transcript
00:00Maybe you two could sing, could we dance?
00:02Let's dance, I know this will be weird.
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:07And today, we're counting down our picks for those celebs that are sneaky good at busting a move.
00:12We happened to go back and try to find a little something something you used to do
00:15because you were like a street performer.
00:16So we actually found some video from those days.
00:20Number 30, Vincent Cassel.
00:31Oh...
00:33How is he deadly in truth, damn it.
00:36As he was initially known for his intense and dramatic performances
00:39in films like La Haine and Irréversible,
00:42it might surprise some to learn how light and smooth on his feet Vincent Cassel actually is.
00:47Although if you've seen his breakout role in La Haine,
00:50you would have caught a glimpse of his dancing abilities in a short dream sequence.
00:53A few years later, in one of his breakout English-language roles,
00:57Cassel danced his way through a laser field in Ocean's Twelve.
01:11In 2010, Cassel showed off more of his moves in a little video for the New York Times.
01:16Number 29, Michelle Obama.
01:19It's important to move, it's important to dance, so...
01:21I got the dance steps the same time you got the dance steps, so don't even try it.
01:26Back in 2010, President Obama launched a task force with the goal of helping fight childhood obesity.
01:31The campaign was called Let's Move,
01:33and the person front and center of said campaign was none other than his wife, Michelle Obama.
01:38In an effort to promote the idea of children getting more physical activity,
01:42the first lady didn't just talk the talk either.
01:44She walked the walk, or more accurately, danced the dance.
01:48Obama busted out her awesome dance moves on various talk shows,
01:52from Ellen to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
01:56Number 28, Idris Elba.
01:59While Idris Elba's DJing abilities are pretty widely known,
02:02you might be surprised to know that he can move his feet as well as he can move those records.
02:06We caught a glimpse of his ability to move his feet after the release of the song Dance Off by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis,
02:12in which Elba is also featured.
02:27As he told Jimmy Fallon, being on a song called Dance Off
02:30meant he found himself being challenged to Dance Offs, quote, quite a bit.
02:34According to Elba, he didn't indulge said challenges,
02:37but then he gave Jimmy and the audience a little taste of what a challenger would be going up against,
02:42were he to accept.
02:52Number 27, Jamie Foxx.
02:54Wait a minute, that's my jam!
03:00So we all know Jamie Foxx can sing.
03:03From his Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles to his Grammy-winning song Blame It,
03:07his impressive pipes have been on display plenty of times.
03:10But if you've been discounting his dancing abilities all these years, don't.
03:14In fact, he showed us all early on in his career that dancing was part of his talented repertoire.
03:19During the five-season run of his self-titled sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show,
03:23Foxx broke it down on multiple occasions from party dancing to the very funny,
03:27and impressive, Dance Off with his nemesis Braxton.
03:39Number 26, Taylor Lautner.
03:42Regardless of who you rooted for throughout the Twilight Saga,
03:45when it comes to dancing, it seems like it's gotta be Team Jacob all the way.
03:50We're sure Robert Pattinson can probably dance a little,
03:53but he's no Taylor Lautner when it comes to busting a move.
04:05It started from a young age, as Lautner studied hip-hop dance in junior high,
04:09and even took up jazz dance as well.
04:12He's been a little shy to show off his moves on talk shows,
04:15but he did shake his hips a little on Ellen,
04:18and he impressed Jonathan Ross and his guests with a standing backflip.
04:29Number 25, Stephanie Beatriz.
04:32Alright, Ox, let's see what you've got.
04:34Five, six, seven, eight.
04:37Eyes up, shoulders down.
04:41Well, that wasn't terrible.
04:43If you thought those sweet ballet moves on Brooklyn Nine-Nine were a fluke, think again.
04:47Stephanie Beatriz can dance.
04:49From in the heights to dance charades with Lilly Singh,
04:52Beatriz has got the moves and the grooves.
04:55And speaking of Brooklyn Nine-Nine,
04:57her co-star Melissa Fumero is also a great dancer.
05:01I burned you with those moves?
05:03You must be pretty nervous.
05:05That's right.
05:06While her character on the show couldn't find rhythm to save her life,
05:09Fumero studied dance from a young age.
05:11A couple years back, she even posted a video of a choreographed routine
05:15she was working on for an audition.
05:17Let's just say, we were impressed.
05:19Number 24, Penelope Cruz.
05:22If you happened to catch the film Noelle back in 2004, or since,
05:26then there would be nothing surprising about seeing Penelope Cruz on this list.
05:30Or maybe you saw her in the 2009 musical Nine?
05:33Another reason why her inclusion here would seem obvious.
05:46However, if you haven't seen either of those films,
05:48then okay, maybe you'll find yourself somewhat shocked about Cruz ending up here.
05:52But you shouldn't be, given that she studied dance for many years growing up,
05:56including classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory.
06:00She's the real deal.
06:02You really are a dancer.
06:04For 14 years.
06:06But I don't dance like you dance.
06:08Number 23, Richard Gere.
06:11Your witness, Mr. Flynn.
06:14Ladies and gentlemen, a tap dance.
06:19Prior to 2002, we knew that Richard Gere could carry Debra Winger
06:23and climb up fire escapes with roses in his mouth.
06:26But we didn't know he could dance.
06:28To be fair though, maybe he didn't know either.
06:31It's not like he studied dance his whole life,
06:33or had really busted a move prior to appearing in Chicago.
06:36But for his role in the Oscar winning movie,
06:38Gere got down to business and learned to dance.
06:41More specifically, he learned to tap dance.
06:44And to prove that wasn't a fluke, he followed it up with 2004's Shall We Dance,
06:48and showed us that he could handle ballroom dancing as well.
06:53Number 22, Nick Offerman.
06:56Just saying the words Nick Offerman and breakdancing in the same sentence
06:59sounds like a joke.
07:00But it's not.
07:01It's real, and it's fantastic.
07:04He moves surprisingly well for a moustachioed gentleman.
07:08He might not look like a guy who can dance,
07:10but as it turns out, Nick Offerman can really dance.
07:13He's a great dancer.
07:15He's a great dancer.
07:17He's a great dancer.
07:19He's a great dancer.
07:20He's a great dancer.
07:22Offerman can really break it down,
07:24and has been doing so since he was a kid growing up in the 80s.
07:27In fact, he and his cousin went by the nicknames Tick Tock and Flip Flop,
07:31and would choreograph breakdancing routines together.
07:34His cousin was the more acrobatically inclined one,
07:37while Offerman's talents lay in the popping and the locking,
07:40as he's demonstrated on numerous talk shows.
07:45Tick Tock.
07:46Tick Tock.
07:48That is nice.
07:50Number 21.
07:51Zoe Saldana.
07:53And you are?
07:54Eva Rodriguez.
07:55So glad you could fit us into your busy schedule, Eva.
07:58Oh, no sweat.
07:59It's no fluke that Zoe Saldana got her first big break in the film Center Stage,
08:03a movie about students at a prestigious ballet academy.
08:06It was a role she'd kind of been training for since she was a kid.
08:10Following the tragic death of her father when she was just nine years old,
08:13Saldana's mother sent her and her sisters to live with family
08:16in the Dominican Republic.
08:18While in the DR, she found dance and began to study at the ECOS,
08:21Espacio de Danza Academy, where ballet became her first love.
08:25And while she, quote, didn't have the feet to become a top ballerina,
08:29all that hard work did help her when it came to getting that first movie role.
08:33I wish I was a good liar.
08:34I wish I was like, yes, well, thank you so much,
08:36but I never could take the credit for anything.
08:39But I owe a lot to just being, you know, having some kind of dance training.
08:45I owe a lot of my career to that, for sure.
08:47Number 20, Amy Adams.
08:51Okay, baby, let's go dancing.
08:53One of the brightest stars in Hollywood,
08:55Amy Adams has quietly managed to carve out a nice little spot for herself
08:59amongst cinema's A-list.
09:01With half a dozen Academy Award nominations under her belt,
09:04Adams has had starring turns in blockbusters such as Man of Steel,
09:08as well as award-winning dramas like American Hustle.
09:11The latter is where she unveiled to the world her secret skill, dancing.
09:16During a club scene with co-star Bradley Cooper,
09:18himself an excellent dancer, Adams more than holds her own.
09:22She actually studied dance when she was younger,
09:25and before making it in Hollywood,
09:26worked as a professional dancer with a number of dinner theaters.
09:31Number 19, Kate Hudson.
09:40Kate Hudson has proven herself a competent dancer on more than one occasion.
09:44She had a number of dance scenes in the 2011 comedy Something Borrowed,
09:48got down with Dancing with the Stars' Derek Hough at a Hollywood club back in 2013,
09:53and even danced during a commercial for Fabletics,
09:56a women's sportswear brand she co-founded.
09:59Of course, who could forget her impressive dance moves
10:02from the first episode of Glee season 4,
10:04when she made her debut as dance instructor Cassandra July.
10:08Hudson clearly knows what she's doing when she steps on a dance floor.
10:13Number 18, Bradley Cooper.
10:15Bradley Cooper is a triple threat who's proved his worth as an actor, singer and director.
10:21But can we talk about how he's an insanely good dancer too?
10:24The multiple Academy Award nominated actor has long been known for his abilities on the dance floor,
10:29and has had the opportunity to flash his skills on more than one occasion.
10:33From the climactic dance routine in Silver Linings Playbook,
10:36to his sexy encounter with Amy Adams in American Hustle,
10:40Cooper has proven that he can boogie like nobody's business.
10:43For him, dancing is clearly not just part of the job,
10:46as he's been known to break out in dance during interviews as well.
10:50Number 17, Salma Hayek.
10:53In the 90s, Salma Hayek cornered the market on red-hot pole dancing routines.
10:58From her turn as a vampire stripper in From Dusk Till Dawn,
11:02to her sexy schoolgirl dance in Dogma,
11:04Hayek clearly had no qualms about shaking what her mama gave her at the onset of her career.
11:09More recently, she's managed to tone down the number of strip teases,
11:12but that doesn't mean she's lost any of the skills that make her such a formidable talent.
11:17One need only look at her dance routine from Jimmy Kimmel's Big Night of Stars to see the proof.
11:22The girl has still got it.
11:24Number 16, Terry Crews.
11:27Now we all know this former pro athlete can act, paint and do a mean Vanessa Carlton impression.
11:40On top of this already triple threat,
11:43we've also seen Crews break it down and do an impression of a different Carlton.
11:53While we've seen his dancing used for comic effect since early on in his career,
11:57we're consistently surprised that a man with this many muscles
12:00is as limber and graceful as Crews continues to be.
12:03A master of showing us the depth behind all his moves,
12:06Crews uses his dancing to infuse life into his portrayals
12:09in ways that keep defying our expectations.
12:23Number 15, Summer Glau.
12:25While the world may know her as an actress,
12:27Summer Glau's childhood dream was to become a ballet dancer.
12:30In fact, she began training at a very young age,
12:34In fact, she began training at a very young age,
12:36and even received a scholarship to join a ballet company.
12:39Glau would later study tango and flamenco dancing,
12:42excelling at both before a broken toe prematurely brought that career to a halt.
12:47It was only then that she decided to move to LA to become an actress.
12:51While she may not have become a professional dancer,
12:54she's still managed to successfully show off her graceful moves on screen on more than one occasion.
13:00Number 14, Colin Farrell.
13:02Based on his numerous tough guy roles and former bad boy image,
13:06it's hard to imagine Colin Farrell shaking it on a dance floor, let alone line dancing.
13:11It is going bad, and it sounds like it is going bad right now.
13:14However, Farrell is not only a great dancer, but was at one time getting paid to do it.
13:19Long before he was one of Hollywood's hottest stars,
13:22Farrell could be found teaching country line dancing in Ireland.
13:26It may sound ridiculous, but it really happened.
13:29In fact, Farrell has since shown off his line dancing skills during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
13:35It's clear he still has some wicked moves up his sleeve.
13:39Number 13, Ryan Gosling.
13:48Ryan Gosling is no stranger to the dance floor.
13:51At just 12 years old, he could be seen busting all kinds of moves in dance competitions or practicing ballet,
13:57something he still does to this day.
14:00More recently, the multi-talented Canadian actor flashed his skills on film,
14:04dancing his way across L.A. as one half of the starstruck couple from the 2016 musical La La Land.
14:10And, of course, his Ken and Barbie had a few memorable moves as well.
14:23While we could pretty much watch Gosling do anything in Fall Over Swooning,
14:26watching him dance is pretty hard to top.
14:30Number 12, Mads Mikkelsen.
14:32Bet you didn't see this one coming.
14:35Mikkelsen, who famously played Le Chiffre in Casino Royale
14:40and, more recently, Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the TV series Hannibal,
14:44began his career as a gymnast and dancer.
14:47A young Mikkelsen studied ballet dancing at an academy in Sweden
14:51and later married dance choreographer Hamna Jakobsson in 2000.
14:55A professional dancer for nearly 10 years,
14:58Mikkelsen decided to leave that world behind in 1996 in favor of an acting career.
15:03Knowing he once wore tights and pranced around on stage
15:06makes this terrifyingly good actor slightly less scary and even more compelling.
15:12Number 11, Tom Holland.
15:14That's right, Spider-Man himself has got some serious moves.
15:18No, not that one.
15:20Holland's background is actually in gymnastics and dance,
15:23having starred in Billy Elliot the Musical in the late 2000s,
15:27first as Billy's best friend Michael and soon after as Billy himself.
15:31But Holland hasn't neglected his dancing roots since hitting the big time,
15:35as evidenced by his jaw-dropping performance on Lip Sync Battle.
15:44In fact, Holland stated that his dancing experience helped him nail the part of Spider-Man.
15:49Color us optimistic,
15:51but we could give Spidey another shot at a big screen dance number,
15:55so long as Holland's in the role.
16:08Number 10, Christian Bale.
16:10In cinema, this man is mostly known as a serious method actor,
16:14a thespian dedicated to the craft.
16:16That's what makes Christian Bale so valuable to directors.
16:19But that's not to say that he can't let loose too,
16:22as evidenced by his dancing character from the 1993 film Swing Kids.
16:32Then, there's the two-time Oscar winner,
16:36Then, there's the 2000 cult classic American Psycho,
16:40in which Bale plays a serial killer with a fondness for mainstream music.
16:52In one particularly disturbing yet memorable scene,
16:55a peppy dance sequence is part of the strategy,
16:58and the performance is so effective that a doomed guest feels at home right until the end.
17:05I think they're undisputed masterpieces, hip to be square.
17:08A song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics, but they should!
17:13Number 9, Chris Evans.
17:15This man is a bona fide action hero,
17:18starring in some of the biggest blockbusters in the world,
17:21as well as more critically acclaimed dramatic roles.
17:24But just where did he pick up that knack for fight choreography?
17:27You must have danced.
17:29Well, asking a woman to dance always seems so terrifying.
17:32In the past few years, it just didn't seem to matter that much.
17:36Figured I'd wait.
17:37Well, it turns out, Evans has a background in tap dance,
17:40which co-workers have praised as the reason he can pick up moves so easily.
17:46Oh, that's charming.
17:47Can you hear it?
17:48We can hear it.
17:49They were good. They were clean.
17:51That was really good.
17:52While we're used to swooning over his charm, charisma, and chiseled features,
17:56this just gives us another reason to fawn over this graceful leading man.
18:00Perhaps it's appropriate that after spending nearly a decade
18:03as a first-tier member of the Avengers,
18:05he got to top it all off with a final dance.
18:17With an acting career that began off-Broadway and experience in the dance world,
18:21this man entered the film industry with a special set of skills.
18:25But it was on The Mindy Project that Chris Messina
18:28really showed us all what he could really do on a dance floor.
18:31As Danny Castellano, he turned heads with a passionate American woman performance.
18:42And he's proven himself to be quite the club dancer as well.
18:45There's nothing goofy going on here, just a man who commits to the grind.
18:49Like the aforementioned Paul Rudd,
18:51it's the nice-guy factor that allows Messina to get away with
18:54a little more in terms of moves than your average actor.
18:59Hey, what's up?
19:00Where did you learn how to do all this?
19:02Jealous?
19:03No, it's actually really cool!
19:05Thank you!
19:14In this man's vast filmography, there's no one definitive dancing moment.
19:19That's because Sam Rockwell seemingly finds excuses to dance often,
19:23and with good reason.
19:25This smooth operator knows that he's got skills,
19:28and there's an old-school mentality that drives each performance.
19:32In fact, he's got a bit of a James Brown style going on,
19:35as he's mostly about hand movements and quick feet.
19:38Rockwell makes it look easy, but when you pay attention,
19:41you'll see that it's anything but that.
19:43Then again, when you have a so-called footloose upbringing,
19:46as Rockwell has previously cited,
19:48dancing just becomes natural.
19:56On the NBC series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
19:59this New York native played opposite a young Will Smith.
20:02Over the course of the series, Alfonso Ribeiro famously performed
20:06the Carlton dance in numerous episodes,
20:08thus establishing a cultural legacy of campy moves.
20:17But when Ribeiro competed on ABC's Dancing with the Stars in 2014,
20:22and won, he showed that he's more than just a comedic performer.
20:26Week after week, Ribeiro displayed his expertise and versatility
20:30by racking up 8s, 9s, and 10s throughout the competition.
20:39In fact, he received all 10s with partner Whitney Carlson in the finals.
20:43And so, Ribeiro essentially dropped the mic
20:45and set a new bar for future dancing celebrities.
20:52Whitney!
21:05Given this man's cinematic legacy and unique manner of speech,
21:09he's become a favorite subject for both amateur and professional impersonators.
21:13Bop, bop, bop.
21:19In 2001, though, Walken achieved a new level of fame,
21:23as his dancing acumen was featured in Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice music video.
21:35With a background in theater,
21:37Walken seemed more than comfortable shuffling around.
21:40And it's that kind of dancing bravado
21:42that made him an ideal casting choice for the 2007 film Hairspray.
21:46While some older gentlemen look awkward when dancing,
21:49Christopher Walken oozes confidence and style.
22:00As a child actor turned A-lister,
22:02this man has long been in the public eye.
22:05Before Joseph Gordon-Levitt's career began, however,
22:08he developed his performance skills in musical theater.
22:11So, after a big transition into movies,
22:14Gordon-Levitt's dancing skills came in handy
22:16for a choreographed dance sequence in the 2009 film 500 Days of Summer.
22:28Impressive as that may be,
22:30he upped the ante in 2015
22:32with his Janet Jackson impression on Lip Sync Battle.
22:39He's even taken his talents to Saturday Night Live.
22:42This guy loves to boogie, and it shows.
22:54But the real reason I started bouncing
22:56was because I loved to dance.
22:59As one of the more iconic 21st century action stars,
23:03this big-screen tough guy is anything but.
23:06Like so many actors,
23:07Mark Sinclair, a.k.a. Vin Diesel, began on the stage,
23:11long before he crossed over into mainstream cinema.
23:14In recent years, we've even seen old-school clips
23:17of him breakdancing in New York City.
23:19Nothing extraordinary, but very entertaining.
23:22In 2014, however,
23:24Vin shocked and amazed fans with videos of him dancing
23:27to both Beyonce's Drunk In Love and Katy Perry's Dark Horse.
23:37It's not often that you'll see a rough-and-tough movie star
23:40shaking his hips,
23:41but that's obviously not an issue for Big Vin.
23:53While this man isn't necessarily a household name,
23:56he's one of the more popular television stars of his generation.
24:00Donald Faison starred in over 170 episodes
24:04of the comedy-drama series Scrubs in the role of Turk,
24:07and during an unforgettable 2006 episode,
24:10showed off some seriously unforgettable moves.
24:13With his smooth performance of Bell Biv DeVoe's Poison,
24:25Faison's confident, fun-loving technique had pop culture buzzing.
24:29And so, the moment became an instant series classic
24:32– a moment that Donald Faison would later revisit
24:35on The Queen Latifah Show.
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25:021. Tom Hiddleston
25:07In the 2000s, this British actor was a West End regular,
25:11but the man was destined for success beyond the stage.
25:20When Tom Hiddleston joined the Marvel family in 2011,
25:23the public began paying even more attention
25:26to this multi-talented individual.
25:29Over the years, he's more than once displayed his precise dance moves
25:33in the middle of interviews,
25:34making him one of the more endearing A-listers of his time.
25:38Hiddleston's past relationship with Taylor Swift
25:40brought even more attention to his dancing abilities
25:42when he worked it out with the pop star at the 2016 Met Gala,
25:46surprising Swifties and the entire world in the process.
25:50Which of these dancing celebs had you doing a double take?
25:53Leave us a comment below.
25:59It would begin there,
26:01and then I would pass that pulse to my partner.
26:05Do you agree with our picks?
26:07Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo,
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