From Funny Face To Fame: The Best Looks From Dance Films

Recently, I’ve found myself desperately missing dance. Watching it on stage. Jumping around a living room packed with friends. Being surrounded by a crush of people enjoying the physical jubilation of moving in time to the same song. 

Perhaps it’s the keenly felt absence of clubs, crowds, parties and theatres that’s had me noticing the number of TV shows and movies recently that have centred dance. Or maybe it’s just coincidence. But there they are. In the latest season of The Crown, Diana takes ballet lessons in gloomily palatial rooms and performs on stage – disastrously – for her husband. In the new documentary Audrey, which takes an honest look at the life, loves and fears of Audrey Hepburn, documentary footage is interspersed with dance sequences to represent the star’s first passion: ballet. In FX’s Fosse/Verdon, each episode is a sea of sequins, endlessly rehearsed routines and simmering tension. In Steve McQueen’s gorgeous Lovers Rock, the action plays out over the course of a single evening at a blues party in 1980.  

In many of these shows, the costumes perfectly complement the motion, whether it’s a ritzy stage outfit or the soft metallic ruffles of a blouse worn by a young woman who has snuck out for the night. In that spirit, while many of us yearn for the euphoria (and serious dress-up potential) of dancing the night away, here are 10 of the best fashion moments from dance’s onscreen history.