Top 10 Most Iconic Dance Moves of All Time

Popularised by Charles Washington and The Lockers dance crew in the early 1970s, The Robot — a series of sharp, mechanical isolations mimicking an automaton — became a standard fixture of disco and funk floors worldwide by mid-decade. Its influence spread from James Brown's live shows to Saturday Night Fever and onward into the popping-and-locking vocabulary that underpins virtually all street dance styles today. The move's legacy endures: it resurfaced in the B-boy scene of the 1980s, the rave culture of the 1990s, and continues to appear in contemporary performance and viral video.

Originating in the hip-hop clubs of the mid-1980s, The Running Man — a rhythmic in-place jog with exaggerated arm pumping — became one of the defining moves of the era and demonstrated remarkable staying power across the decades that followed. The Backstreet Boys incorporated it into their 1990s choreography, MC Hammer made it ubiquitous in music videos, and it was revived on TikTok in the 2010s and again in the early 2020s. Its simplicity and adaptability mean every generation rediscovers it as their own, making it one of the most durable hip-hop contributions to mainstream dance culture.

Released on 15 July 2012, Psy's "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views — and then two billion, three billion, and beyond — driven in large part by the irresistible horse-riding dance that accompanied it. The move sparked over a thousand parody videos from Harvard professors to world leaders, spawned flash mobs on every continent, and introduced the concept of a K-pop global viral moment years before BTS made it routine. At its 2014 peak, the video had been watched for more than 4 billion combined minutes per day, a record that held until 2016.

Alfonso Ribeiro's exuberant solo dance — performed to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" by Carlton Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air — became one of the most recognised television moments of the 1990s and has only grown in cultural stature since. Ribeiro sued the makers of Fortnite in 2018 when the game included it as an unlockable emote without compensation or credit, bringing the question of choreography copyright into mainstream conversation. The Carlton endures as shorthand for unself-conscious, unconstrained joy and remains one of the most requested dance moves at weddings worldwide.

Russell Horning, then 16 years old and known online as The Backpack Kid, performed The Floss — a rapid hip-swinging move with alternating arm swings — during Katy Perry's Saturday Night Live appearance in May 2017, having first posted the move on Instagram in 2016. Within days the clip had been viewed tens of millions of times and The Floss had spread to every playground on earth. Like Ribeiro before him, Horning sued Epic Games over its inclusion in Fortnite, helping establish a landmark legal debate about ownership of viral internet dance moves.

Originally released by Spanish duo Los Del Rio in 1994, the Macarena became a worldwide phenomenon after its 1996 remix reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 — where it sat for 14 consecutive weeks, one of the longest chart runs in history. The accompanying eight-step arm choreography was simple enough for anyone to learn in minutes, which made it a fixture at sporting events, political conventions, and school dances across every continent. It has since accumulated more than 75 million YouTube views and remains one of the most played party tracks in the world three decades after its release.

Choreographed by Michael Peters and Michael Jackson, the Thriller dance was introduced in a 14-minute short film directed by John Landis and broadcast on MTV in December 1983 — the most expensive music video ever made at the time. The zombie ensemble choreography it contains is the most imitated group dance routine in history, reproduced annually at Halloween events, in shopping malls, at sporting arenas, and in flash mobs on every continent, including a famous 1,500-person recreation in a Philippine prison that went viral in 2007. The Thriller dance turned the music video into a cinematic art form and the music video album into a commercial product.

Madonna's "Vogue" — released in March 1990 and accompanied by a music video that reached number one in 30 countries — brought the underground ballroom culture of Harlem and the Bronx to a global audience for the first time. The angular, model-like posing style that defines vogueing had been developed in Black and Latino LGBTQ+ ballroom scenes since the 1970s, but Madonna's adoption of it, and the subsequent documentary Paris Is Burning (1990), sparked a global fascination that eventually found its way back to mainstream culture through RuPaul's Drag Race and Pose. The move spawned an entire competitive subcultural art form with its own global circuit of balls and competitions.

The haka is a ceremonial dance of the Maori people of New Zealand — encompassing vigorous body-slapping, stamping, protruding tongues, and chanted text — performed at occasions ranging from welcome ceremonies and weddings to funerals and political protests. Its international profile is dominated by its use by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, who have performed it before international matches since 1905; the Ka Mate haka performed by the All Blacks is arguably the most recognisable sports ritual on earth, and the pre-match intimidation it creates is documented in sports psychology literature. Far from a relic, the haka is a living tradition actively maintained and evolved by Maori communities worldwide.

Popularised by Charles Washington and The Lockers dance crew in the early 1970s, The Robot — a series of sharp, mechanical isolations mimicking an automaton — became a standard fixture of disco and funk floors worldwide by mid-decade. Its influence spread from James Brown's live shows to Saturday Night Fever and onward into the popping-and-locking vocabulary that underpins virtually all street dance styles today. The move's legacy endures: it resurfaced in the B-boy scene of the 1980s, the rave culture of the 1990s, and continues to appear in contemporary performance and viral video.

Originating in the hip-hop clubs of the mid-1980s, The Running Man — a rhythmic in-place jog with exaggerated arm pumping — became one of the defining moves of the era and demonstrated remarkable staying power across the decades that followed. The Backstreet Boys incorporated it into their 1990s choreography, MC Hammer made it ubiquitous in music videos, and it was revived on TikTok in the 2010s and again in the early 2020s. Its simplicity and adaptability mean every generation rediscovers it as their own, making it one of the most durable hip-hop contributions to mainstream dance culture.

Released on 15 July 2012, Psy's "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views — and then two billion, three billion, and beyond — driven in large part by the irresistible horse-riding dance that accompanied it. The move sparked over a thousand parody videos from Harvard professors to world leaders, spawned flash mobs on every continent, and introduced the concept of a K-pop global viral moment years before BTS made it routine. At its 2014 peak, the video had been watched for more than 4 billion combined minutes per day, a record that held until 2016.

Alfonso Ribeiro's exuberant solo dance — performed to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" by Carlton Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air — became one of the most recognised television moments of the 1990s and has only grown in cultural stature since. Ribeiro sued the makers of Fortnite in 2018 when the game included it as an unlockable emote without compensation or credit, bringing the question of choreography copyright into mainstream conversation. The Carlton endures as shorthand for unself-conscious, unconstrained joy and remains one of the most requested dance moves at weddings worldwide.

Russell Horning, then 16 years old and known online as The Backpack Kid, performed The Floss — a rapid hip-swinging move with alternating arm swings — during Katy Perry's Saturday Night Live appearance in May 2017, having first posted the move on Instagram in 2016. Within days the clip had been viewed tens of millions of times and The Floss had spread to every playground on earth. Like Ribeiro before him, Horning sued Epic Games over its inclusion in Fortnite, helping establish a landmark legal debate about ownership of viral internet dance moves.

Originally released by Spanish duo Los Del Rio in 1994, the Macarena became a worldwide phenomenon after its 1996 remix reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 — where it sat for 14 consecutive weeks, one of the longest chart runs in history. The accompanying eight-step arm choreography was simple enough for anyone to learn in minutes, which made it a fixture at sporting events, political conventions, and school dances across every continent. It has since accumulated more than 75 million YouTube views and remains one of the most played party tracks in the world three decades after its release.

Choreographed by Michael Peters and Michael Jackson, the Thriller dance was introduced in a 14-minute short film directed by John Landis and broadcast on MTV in December 1983 — the most expensive music video ever made at the time. The zombie ensemble choreography it contains is the most imitated group dance routine in history, reproduced annually at Halloween events, in shopping malls, at sporting arenas, and in flash mobs on every continent, including a famous 1,500-person recreation in a Philippine prison that went viral in 2007. The Thriller dance turned the music video into a cinematic art form and the music video album into a commercial product.

Madonna's "Vogue" — released in March 1990 and accompanied by a music video that reached number one in 30 countries — brought the underground ballroom culture of Harlem and the Bronx to a global audience for the first time. The angular, model-like posing style that defines vogueing had been developed in Black and Latino LGBTQ+ ballroom scenes since the 1970s, but Madonna's adoption of it, and the subsequent documentary Paris Is Burning (1990), sparked a global fascination that eventually found its way back to mainstream culture through RuPaul's Drag Race and Pose. The move spawned an entire competitive subcultural art form with its own global circuit of balls and competitions.

The haka is a ceremonial dance of the Maori people of New Zealand — encompassing vigorous body-slapping, stamping, protruding tongues, and chanted text — performed at occasions ranging from welcome ceremonies and weddings to funerals and political protests. Its international profile is dominated by its use by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, who have performed it before international matches since 1905; the Ka Mate haka performed by the All Blacks is arguably the most recognisable sports ritual on earth, and the pre-match intimidation it creates is documented in sports psychology literature. Far from a relic, the haka is a living tradition actively maintained and evolved by Maori communities worldwide.