The 17 best dance movies of all time, ranked

Paramount

Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas in 2001's "Save the Last Dance."

• Compelling dance movies, like "Dirty Dancing," are hard to get right.
• These are the best dance movies of all time, from "Happy Feet" to "Step Up."

Dance movies are hard to get right. They need eye-popping (and frequent) dance breaks, but they also need a cast who can act, not just pirouette or break.

The worst dance movies require fast forwarding through all the parts that aren't dance. But the best ones aren't just watchable - they're classics.

Here's our official ranking of the 17 most famous dance movies ever made.

INSIDER Note: This isn't a list of all dance movies - just the most popular. We also excluded movie-musicals. Even though they have lots of dancing, that's an entirely separate genre that deserves its own ranking.