Awesome Dancing

Dancers Jackson Chavis, BluPrint and Taylor Pierce take robotic dancing to the next level, working in perfect sync in this routine they choreographed to Kid Cudi’s 2009 track Day ‘N’ Nite. Be sure to check out more mad dance moves on Jackson’s TikTok feed.

To celebrate the end of 2020 and to ring in a happier 2021, robotics company Boston Dynamics programmed their ATLAS, SPOT, and HANDLE robots to perform a little dance routine to The Contours classic Do You Love Me? Everything you see here was filmed in-camera with real robots, and with no CGI or visual effects.

When you think of figure skating, Metallica isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But Team USA ice dancers Oona and Gage Brown dispel that notion with this exceptionally precise performance choreographed to Nothing Else Matters, combining Metallica’s original metal ballad with a cover version by Marlisa.

Backed by the jazzy sounds of Ilhan Ersahin’s Istanbul Sessions‘ track Hurri-Mitanni (Güzel Haber), director Gökalp Gönen’s music video is loaded with eye-catching images, as a series of dancers wander the streets, transforming into surreal and colorful figures with the help of computer graphics tech.

It’s been a long time since we checked in with dancer Michael Startsev aka TakeSomeCrime, but we’re happy to see that he’s still got his groove more than a decade later. If you ever wondered what to do with your hands while dancing, he’s got a trick or two to show you.

The dancing lads of Ireland’s Cairde show off their impressive footwork as they perform a little synchronized stepdance in the woods. As many astute commenters have pointed out, it looks like an OK Go music video. More stepping goodness here.

David Chanishvili is a dancer with the Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet. In order to perform their mix of folk dance, classical ballet, and modern dance, he and his fellow company members must possess incredible coordination, athleticism, and strength. Great Big Story offers a brief glimpse into their talents.

Blackhand typically uses his X-Acto knife to build stuff out of cardboard. But in this clip, he used his sharp hobby blade to cut out silhouettes from 1400 pieces of paper, transforming footage of a dancer’s moves into a stop-motion animation. Original video here.

This short dance film by THÉORIZ pulls off some impressive visuals, given the fact that all of its effects were shot in-camera, with no green screen or post-production. They achieved their mixed reality illusion using motion tracking synchronized with real-time projected imagery. Behind the scenes here (turn captions on.)

(PG-13: Lyrics) “People, we the pirates, the pride of this great republic.” The music video for RTJ, Greg Nice, and DJ Premier’s anthemic track imagines a day when classes, currency, and other arbitrary social constructs burn to the ground, and we all dance and party in the streets to celebrate the fall of the house of cards.

If there’s one thing you can definitely do while stuck at home, it’s dance. We all have our own favorite moves, but most of them couldn’t hold a candle to the smooth-flowing choreography of dancer Poppin John, who wowed us with his colorful living room performance.

Gareth Smith & Jenny Lee’s enchanting video observes Los Angeles from a new perspective. Watch in awe as dancer-choreographer Jason Chong appears to dance across the city’s overhead power lines. Now before you go calling the power company, the illusion was done using VFX trickery by Smith and Theo Alexopoulos.

The dancers of Pyroterra Fire & Light show off one of their coolest props. The LED Cube FT is a large, but lightweight cube packed with 1368 RGB LEDs designed for stage performances. The collapsible cubes have a programmable chip on board for storing sequences and can be controlled remotely from up to 200 meters away.

It’s been a while since we checked in with dancer Marquese Scott, and it’s good to know that he’s still got all the moves. In this clip for Ed “Gusto” Greene & Scott Trent’s modern disco track, his crisp and clean choreography is further accentuated with the addition of colorful moving lines. Download the track here.

The breakdance crew of OK World Wide show off their spinning talents, with the added bonus of colorful trails of smoke being emitted from their feet. The brightly colored festivities were captured in brilliant 4K by filmmaker Ali Kubba.

A group of talented kids from Walden Grove High School’s PAC Dance Team take on the world of The Avengers with a highly-energetic and highly-entertaining routine that recaps highlights from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as our costumed superheroes perform choreographed battle with Thanos and his Black Order.

The multitalented Aaron Grooves and Jared Charney Cohen collaborated for this fun tap dance, piano, and xylophone performance of the “Athletic” theme music from Super Mario World. If you need a smile today, this video should do the trick.

(PG-13: Lyrics) In between his professional projects, animator Lawrence Becker of Samplertimes created a series of awesome stop-motion animations of Spider-Man turning in some precisely-choreographed dance moves. The behind-the-scenes clips are worth a watch too.

During WindGames 2019, Fred Fernandez turned in an amazing and frenetic performance, set to a medley of classic Queen tunes as he flew through the air in one of those indoor skydiving facilities. Check it out from another angle here.

“Dad is feeling oh so good, with Walker Texas on the tube.” Actor, stuntman, and dancer Nathan Barnatt takes an hour out of his busy day to entertain us, as his character, “Dad” turns in his best moves, accompanied by the appropriate track Dad Feels.

A charming performance by ballet dancer Oleg Chernasov, as he performs the parts of two smaller characters fighting each other. While the costume is definitely a big part of the illusion, it’s his agility and choreography that really make it work.

Pretty much every society in recorded history has had some form of dance as part of its culture. Why is something that seems so frivolous is so ingrained into human nature? Aeon provides their take on the importance of dance and movement to humanity.

Comedian Joe Kwaczala celebrated his 31st birthday by posting 31 videos in one day. Among the extensive playlist was this gem, his instruction for all the moves you need to know to dance along to the Soft Cell’s 1981 new wave version of Tainted Love.