by Ted Sherman

Created on: September 14, 2008

The best movie dance scenes are not easy to hone down to just ten. After compiling my choices, I felt a sense of guilt for omitting at least a dozen more that could easily qualify among the best of the best. However, because of my own tastes, my preference for Broadway musicals and lack of appreciation for just about every movie dance scene from the past 40 years, here are my choices:

1. An American in Paris (1951) won a score of Academy Awards, and featured a 20-minute dance sequence to Gershwin's magnificent title song that no other musical film has ever topped. Gene Kelly in character as artist Jerry Mulligan starred in and danced several other great Gershwin numbers in the film, and each was superior enough to make any top ten list of best film dance scenes. However the fantastic, no-dialog ballet with Leslie Caron at the end of the film is a classic for all times.

2. Sweet Charity (1969) is Shirley MacLaine at the height of her great dancing career in this film. As a tried and true Broadway hit before it was filmed, it included many great dance numbers, and it is difficult to choose the best. I believe Shirley's march through New York streets in "I'm a Brass Band" is the most brilliant. Dressed in a bright red drum major's costume, she struts and spins magnificently through the streets, followed by her company of marchers and musicians. Of course, many people would elect the cynical "Hey, Big Spender" as the better number in the show, and I almost agree. But nothing could match the energetic Shirley's streets of New York dance romp.

3.Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is obviously a highly romanticized biography of the song-and-dance immortal, George M. Cohan, but when Oscar-winning Jimmy Cagney tells you to believe, you'd better believe. The film has many great dance numbers, but the best has to be Cagney's dance to the title tune. Although already well into his 40s and should have been long past his dancing days, Cagney does an amazingly acrobatic turn as he sings and recites the lyrics with a crowd of singing ladies and dancing jockeys behind him. I often go into YouTube and play the number, just to remember when music wasn't all noise, and dancing made entertainment sense and to make my day a little bit sunnier.

4. The Little Colonel (1935) featured six-year-old Shirley Temple dancing up and down the steps with immortal hoofer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Although, as in all early films, the black Robinson's character was required to be a servant, the friendly

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