Tag Archives: Grease
Movies, Pop Culture
Top Ten Dance Movie Montages
July 10, 2017 ThesaltyjuCenterStage, Channing Tatum, Dirty Dancing, Footloose, Ginuwine, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Grease, High School Musical: Senior Year, Honey, Jennifer Grey, Jessica Alba, John Travolta, Julia Stiles, Kevin Bacon, Magic Mike, Olivia Newton John, Patrick Swayze, Pony, Sarah Jessica Parker, Save the Last Dance, Step Up 2, Zac Efron 1 Comment
Since I pretty much air out all of my guilty pleasures on this blog, I don't even know if I can call them guilty pleasures anymore. So this one's for my fellow loud and proud CHEEZY dance movie lovers. If there's a movie centered on the art of dance, you can pretty much bet I'll be watching. It's my year-round Hallmark holiday movie, so to speak. A love story mixed in with some bada$$ choreography. I like to pretend that I too, could've been a professional dancer but unfortunately my elementary ballet with Miss Louise, followed by 2 years of "Jazz" classes in middle school and ending in a Radio Disney dance team tryout where I couldn't even remember the steps they taught us five minutes prior ended that dream real quick.
I learned to accept that my best moves will come out between the hours of 11 PM and 4 AM after approximately 100 bud lights. It's a shame they never created a feature on my Jersey turnpikin' skillz at the club in college. (There's still time…) Either way, I've learned to truly appreciate a bangin final dance number or montage, the best of which I've outlined below.
10. Footloose
Footloose is rounding out the caboose because to be perfectly honest it was before my time and I've never actually seen it. It may dishearten a few to hear that I've only seen the remake with Julianne Hough and Kenny Wormald. HOWEVER, knowing the history of dance movies, it would be preposterous to leave off the movie centered on a town that BANNED DANCING from this list. So here's a fun look at when a boy just needs to dance out his feelings, even though he could be arrested for it. #Rebel.
9. Honey
Hoodrat Jessica Alba is the only version I wish to know. From the gold nameplate necklace to the way that she says "we peoples", I CANNOT LOOK AWAY. Girl gets exclusive beats from DJ Scratch for pete's sake. And don't even get me started on how she rocks that "just wear the sleeves" fashion with some baggy camo pants. Honey's such a good choreographer that she turns someone falling into a dance move! In all seriousness, this movie is #9 because I expect no one who hasn't seen it yet to ever watch it. It's embarrassing at best and that's saying a lot for a movie that features Jadakiss as a "top celebrity". Bottom line is that you watch this to laugh at Jessica Alba acting street and being the most sought out choreographer in the rap industry. It's the little things in life that bring me joy. This movie is one of them.
8. Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance is that tried and true, mix up a guy from the wrong side of the tracks with a straight laced nerd. I wish Julia Stiles wasn't such a cream cheese white awkward bird in this movie because 90% if it is cringeworthy. Her wearing a Gap cami and french braids to the club was level 10 embarrassing. A ballet and hip hop mashup should always be appreciated though and that's why her Juilliard try out made the list. Nothing will ever top your black boyfriend teaching you how to booty pop, grl.
7. High School Musical 3
Although the High School Movie franchise is not technically part of the dance genre, it still counts because Zac Efron's got moves for daaaays. Real talk, I don't think I've ever faced anything quite as difficult as just choosing one dance number from the 3 HSM movies. Do I go with a Troy Bolton emo solo where he's contemplating basketball versus theater in the halls of his high school? Tempting for sure. Instead I settled for the duet between these two wildcats. Vanessa Hudgens' legs look real bangable and it's no wonder her boyfriend wants to spin her around the rooftop just to ask her to prom. Seriously did you see how effortlessly he swooped her into the air? Sigh.
6. Dirty Dancing
A classic that should never be revisited (I'm talking to you, ABC) and of course the famous lift that every girl wishes her boyfriend could flawlessly perform. Seriously, guys, it shouldn't be that hard to toss us above your head and hold us there while you spin. May Patrick Swayze and those sassy hips rest in peace as his memory lives on forever through (I've Had) The Time of My Life. We owe it all to you.
5. Grease
If I'm gonna slobber all over nobody putting baby in a corner, you bet your ass that Sandy in her bad gurl leathers was making this list. She puts her hussy pants on and is suddenly ready to shimmy it up for her man. I'm only a little jelly of her legs in those pants. Ok fine I'm a lot jelly. (If you're noticing a trend here with me drooling over every female leads legs, you're not wrong.) Everyone whose anyone knows that the shake shack is the best part of this routine and it's not even up for debate.
4. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
We've now arrived at one of the most underrated 80's dance flicks of all time. SJP and Helen Hunt in their infant years when they were fresh on the Hollywood scene. If you haven't seen this movie I suggest you watch it immediately if you want to be respected as a theatrical dance movie aficionado. SJP is a catholic school girl with a nazi dad and her counter part is OBV a bad boy but they become dance partners competing for a spot as COVETED Dance TV regulars. Although the tryouts and the final DTV competition are stellar in their own right, it would've been an injustice not to include this VERY 80's dance/falling in love montage from the middle of the movie. My sister used to be so obsessed with this scene that she would rewind the ole VHS and replay it roughly 15 times before we could move on to the rest of the movie. Enjoy the classic beach silhouette lift and throwback Pepsi can mixed in with lots and lots of gymnastics.
3. Step Up 2 The Streets
It may surprise you that I don't have the original Step Up and the spark of Channing and Jenna's love on here. I like to toss in a curveball every once in a while to keep everyone on their toes. Here's the second installment (every Step Up that follows this are white hot garbage) where having a dance crew and performing out on the streets is WAY cooler than getting into some lame arts school. They prove it too by dancing outside to trunk speakers IN THE RAIN. Whoa. The reason this dance is so high on the list can pretty much be narrowed down to one baller move and that is OBVIOUSLY when what's his face does the heart beat over what's her face. I'm not proud of it but I spent far too much time one night in college trying to perfect that move with one of my roommates. Unfortunately rhythm is necessary for nailing that to a beat, but whatever. A for effort.
2. Magic Mike
This one's for all my LAAADIEZZZZZ. (I mean, technically they all are, but we'll pretend it's just this one) Essentially the only takeaway from Magic Mike is the Pony dance and that's pretty freaking obvious. I don't really think I need to say anything else.
1. Center Stage
The queen bee of dance movies is Center Stage. They barely even hired actors for this, they just straight up trolled the American Ballet Company for dancers to play themselves. Never did I ever think a ballet performance could be interesting enough to contain a saucy sex scene but that's just what Cooper, bad boy of ballet, does. This performance was 10 minutes long and I am continuously riveted for every single minute. Boys fighting over a girl, motorcycles onstage, all the way to her flawless red lip, dreadlocks finale. WHAT A WHIRLWIND. This dance number has everything I could have ever hoped and dreamed and that's why it's the GOAT. Even I was like hey, should I maybe become a ballerina by the end of it. Then I remembered how they basically chop their toes off to stand on wooden blocks for 90% of every day and I was out. PS do NOT try to make boys watch this movie. They will revolt and ruin every precious moment of this badass final dance. Tough stuff, lesson learned.
Grease LIVE! Review
February 1, 2016 ThesaltyjuAaron Tveit, Carly Rae Jepsen, Danny Zuko, Fox, Frenchie, Grease, Grease LIVE, Julianne Hough, Keke Palmer, Kinicki, Mario Lopez, Rizzo, Sandra Dee, Vanessa Hudgens Leave a comment
I went into this one with real low expectations and assumed I would be turning it off halfway through. Mostly because even though John Travolta is a big creep-dogg now, his role as Danny Zuko was easily my first crush (I've got a thing for bad boys) and I had a hard time imagining anyone else taking his place as the Zukster. I would call last night the first successful TV musical and I think everyone in America agrees. Mostly because of Aaron Tveit's hips. Really though, in the sand, under the docks, I'd smooch this boy anywhere after last night's performance. Here are the highs and lows of a musical based on the premise of a girl changing everything about herself for sex.
YES:
-Seriously Sandy, stop being such a square. Kisses from a guy with an open button-down make everything better.
-My favorite college bar used to play Summer Nights every single Saturday, which is just good business. Get a bunch of college kids boozed up and then have them scream in unison "NIIIII-HEIIIGHHHTTTSSSSS". Needless to say, after damaging my eardrums from that on repeat every weekend, I was a little nervous for the live rendition. They nailed it though. Speaking of nailed, I feel like Danny's friends should try it sometime and maybe they wouldn't be so hard up for his beach hookup deets.
-LET THE HIP THRUSTS BEGIN. He could have sung Lamb Chop Sing-along here and I wouldn't have noticed at all thanks to those hot moves. Seriously, were they even singing about a car?
-All hail the 50's for their athletic nut huggers
-I don't remember Frenchie being such a feminist in the original Grease, then again I also don't remember a country that wasn't aggressively racist and segregated in the 1950's but that's neither here nor there. In modern-reboot world, black students don't have to drink from a separate drinking fountain, they can hand jive with the rest of 'em, and Frenchie is a capital F feminist. She yaps to Sandy about how she doesn't need Danny, she can be an independent woman like they teach in home ec. And Sandy's like yeah whatever I'm gonna go buy some leather pants and get my man.
-Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo slayed. Hudgens lost her dad this past weekend and went on to crush it as everyone's fave sloot. She was sassy and looked like a real dime. Even her solo at the end was good and if we're being honest that was always a song I skipped so I could get right to "tell me about it, stud" goods.
-Was it lame that they had to edit song lyrics and keep the kisses PG for primetime? Kind of. Was it AWESOME that they didn't tone down the dancing? Yes. I'd like to personally thank Fox for allowing this to air:
It looked like a Miami club all up in that gym. Except of course, for Sandy…
Cool moves, grl.
-I wore leather pants out Saturday night and totally had a hot guy crawl around the bar after me too, and pass out from how hot I looked… (Not..jealous..at..all)
-Although it pains me to say this, because Boyz II Men are the originators of babymakin music, but after their performance as the teen angels, I think they're past their prime. In other words, they've come to the end of the road. ZING.
-Related but also unrelated to Boyz II Men, Carly Rae Jepsen kinda sucked as Frenchie. The original Frenchie was so much better. She even outshined Carly as the waitress at the diner. Yikes.
-This new song was alright, but nothing's weirder than the guitar guy roaming around the gym trying to distract us from our very own "who wears short shorts" commercial in the flesh, via Danny Zuko.
-The infamous drag race where there's fire and cars getting chopped up and a terrifying villain named Leo with pockmarks all over his face was DUST in last night's version. I understand they have limited resources on a sound stage but they didn't even try that hard to make it look like they weren't in a stationary car making a bunch of intense faces. I stand by my tweet.
The drag racing scene really killed it. MY HEART WAS RACING as they drove in place. #GreaseLive pic.twitter.com/ORl7VQjoOS
— Julia Giantomasi (@TheSaltyJu) February 1, 2016
-If they had a carnival set up outside WHY DID THEY NOT HAVE THE ENTIRE FINAL SCENE THERE? Starting in the gym and then driving golf carts around the set to finish the show was super dumb.
-Yeah, yeah, smoking is the worst but Bad Sandy NEEDS a cigg here. How is she supposed to stomp it out with her heel and look like a leather-clad minx while doing it?
-Related: you can't have the final scene without the scandalous Shake Shack shimmy and the flying car. No argument. End of discussion.
Oh, obviously Julianne Hough was great as Sandy. As if that was ever a question. The girl's a profesh at everything and cute as a button. From one Bad Sandy to another, I'll just continue to be bitter about the fact that she got to mack Aaron and stuff…
JUice, Uncategorized
November 27, 2015 ThesaltyjuAdele, Bristol Palin, FNL Musical, Fox, Friday Night Lights, Grease, Grease LIVE, Jay Cutler, Jimmy Fallon, Julianne Hough, Kristin Cavallari, Mariah Carey, Scott Porter, Sofia Vergara, The Roots, The Tonight Show Leave a comment
1. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Sing.
The player is now the coach… @nbcfnl's @ScottPorter is Coach Taylor in the Unauthorized #FNLMusical! pic.twitter.com/V0p5eLOUCo
— #FNLMUSICAL (@TheFNLMusical) November 24, 2015
It has been announced that Friday Night Lights will go the musical way much like The OC and Cruel Intentions AND Scott Porter will play Coach Taylor. No. Thank. You. Look, FNL is the stuff. It's the greatest show ever made and Coach Taylor is the best football coach in the world. WE DON'T NEED TO SING ABOUT IT. I have a low tolerance for breaking into song mid-sentence and I'm not seeing how a show that featured roughly 2 songs the entire series could ever make song and dance believable in the story line. ALSO Kyle Chandler is Coach Taylor and Coach Taylor is Kyle Chandler. No one else should ever utter that famous phrase, regardless of if they're a Dillon insider or not.
2. Grease Live first peek.
I realize the contradiction of shitting all over a musical above and then hyping this one but Grease is a STAPLE. How else are girls going to learn that wearing leather pants and red lipstick while smoking a ciggy will ALWAYS get you yo man? Anyway, the cast looks gr8. I mean Julianne Hough is pretty much perfect for Sandy. Even Vanessa Hudgens surprised me as Rizzo. There's a strong possibility that I watch this to see how it plays out chemistry-wise. Here they are hand jivin it up to get you on board.
3. Magic Mike Wedding.
Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello got hitched last weekend and in a surprising move, Sofia posted all wedding photos on her personal Instagram. Boss move by her to be like hey it's my wedding and I'll do what I damn please with the pics. She obviously looked bangin body-wise but I'm not fully understanding the concept of the wings on each side of her dress. Anyway, I can only assume that there was PLENTY of stripping between her hubs and Channing and I'll just let that fantasy play out in my mind a little further if you'll excuse me.
A photo posted by Sofia Vergara (@sofiavergara) on Nov 22, 2015 at 5:30pm PST
Goodnight. Gracias @mindyweiss @jeffleatham @zuhairmuradofficial @lorraineschwartz for helping us make our dream come true❤️❤️❤️❤️
A photo posted by Sofia Vergara (@sofiavergara) on Nov 23, 2015 at 1:55am PST
4. Little Saylor Girl.
Saylor James Cutler was born today at 132pm!! 🎀💕
A photo posted by Kristin Cavallari (@kristincavallari) on Nov 23, 2015 at 1:58pm PST
SAYLOR. JAMES. KRISTIN'S NOT EVEN REAL HOLLYWOOD AND SHE JUST DROPPED THAT HOLLYWOOD NAME. Don't worry Bristol Palin also called dibs on it and needed to make it clear that she picked it first and isn't a total poser. K, Bristol. Thanks so much.
when you find out @kristincavallari named her baby the exact name you are naming yours 🙀😳 what a weird coincidence .. congrats on your new bundle, and I do love her name.. Still naming my baby girl Sailor! 🙊😻❤️
A photo posted by Bristol Palin (@bsmp2) on Nov 23, 2015 at 3:23pm PST
Because you can't go five minutes without hearing Adele and also because my family made it a new tradition yesterday to just keep whispering Hello….over and over again. Here's the British powerhouse with her classroom toys version on Jimmy Fallon.
BONUS: TIS THE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!