Since the beginning of cinema, dance has always been incorporated to film. During the golden age of Hollywood the movie musical dominated the silver screen and incorporated some of the best dance scenes ever. But when it comes to dance on film, not all are successful, in fact, most of the time they are pretty cringe worthy. So here is a list of the top 10 cringe worthy dance movies of all time (sort of). 

Save The Last Dance (2001)

We forget that before she was Olivia Pope, Kerry Washington graced us in the epic dance flop. Julia Stiles doing ballet was hard enough to watch, but watching her attempt hip-hop with a chair… priceless. If you are feeling down about your dancing, watch this movie and be reminded, that Julia Stiles really did that for the world to see, and someone in editing and production thought it was a good or at least passable to create this film… This is literally the funniest thing ever.

Honey (2003)
Features Jessica Alba and Lil’ Romeo in another “ghetto, underserved, and ethnic community” being saved by a random dancer who didn’t make it, burnt out, or was sexually propositioned. The later, is our main character’s storyline and while it is heartwarming and feel good as she helps a community center to redefine her life, this corny and predictable movie is just full of bad acting and cinema.

Step Up Franchise
Before there was Magic Mike, our favorite rom-com, all-American heartthrob was just a poor inner city high schooler trying to find his way in the world and stumbles across a struggling ballerina at an arts high school. Yeah, basically a reinvented version of Save the Last Dance with sort of better dancers, worse choreography, and a cornucopia of bad acting and dancing. They should just let this die already. But no, Step Up once again takes advantage of how popular dance is and created 5 terrible films. Step Up (2006), Step Up 2: The Streets (2008), Step Up 3D (2010), Step up Revolution (2012), Step Up: All In (2014). And we had a the terrible Step Up Series that ran from 2018-2021, Step Up High Water.

Shall We Dance (2004)
God Bless JLo and Richard Gere, but man was this movie uncomfortable. A middle aged man trying to save his marriage while reinventing himself, and burnout ballroom champion just doesn’t really do it. Plus, in the dance genre, there are really great ballroom films out there. So, this movie just shouldn’t have been made.

Grease 2 (1982)
Should have never happened. Without the late Olivia Newton John as Sandy and John Travolta as Danny, it just doesn’t hit the same. Not to mention the actors are just, well, bad.

You Got Served (2004)
In a world of epic dance battles, underground street culture, gang life and the early 2000’s, You Got Served was none of that. This epic dance drama made for boys doesn’t do anything good for dance. With the exception of filming street dance in a very cinematic way, the rest of the film is basically garbage. 

From Justin to Kelly (2003)
This has to be the worst movie musical ever made. And I am being generous. While Disney has had many flops, and trying to recreate the MGM movies is hard, this one just had to be pure and utter trash. Trying to ride the American Idol season one phenomena, this movie was just… you can’t even describe how bad it is. And the worst part, I believe I saw it in theaters… embarrassing moment and shameful past. I am glad I have grown since then, haha.