History Main / SpontaneousChoreography

->"It's funny, isn't it? You would never suspect that everyone at this school is a professional dancer."

* The opening of ''{{Hair}}'' features a Crowd Dance.
* In ''My Best Friend's Wedding'', the song "I Say a Little Prayer" breaks out at the family-style seafood restaurant, starting with one guy at the busy table singing in answer to one question, and it grows steadily for almost five minutes, each time the song reaches the end of a verse or chorus, you think its over. But no, it just kicks off bigger and bigger, until the dancing lobsters join in near the end. It's a brilliant spot in a movie that had other problems, but it works so well, it is worth living with the other problems just to see it.

* '' Film/{{Clerks II}}'' had one of these with that Jackson 5 song.
* ''[[Film/SisterAct Sister Act 2]]'' also had one in that the kids had been practicing a big traditional choral presentation, but then at the last minute when faced up against a big-time school that did the same thing better than they could have, turn it into a mixed-style free-for-all version of the same basic song. Note that the accompanying music also keeps up with the different style changes, even though they just decided to do it this way a few minutes prior.

* In the second ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' film, the climactic fight spills into a club where Music/VanillaIce is performing. After a brief chat with his backup dancers, he launches into what's apparently an entire improvised rap with perfectly matched dancing about the fight.

* ''Film/AustinPowers: International Man of Mystery''. During the opening titles Austin is chased through the streets of London in 1967. At one point he and his pursuers start dancing to the music.

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* Parodied in WebVideo/{{asdfmovie}}.

* Animated example: In ''TheReturnOfHanuman'' musical sequence "Aasman Ko Chhukar", tourists, pirates, animals, even ''the Statue of Liberty'' dances.

-->--''Film/NotAnotherTeenMovie''

* Lampshaded in ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', as Robert is [[OnlySaneMan the only one who finds it odd]] that everyone is spontaneously dancing and singing in the middle of Central Park.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', Big Gay Al is talked into doing a musical number by the crowd. Big Gay Al says "Oh, but we haven't rehearsed!". The "I Feel Super" number follows.

->"It's funny, isn't it? [[LampshadeHanging You would never suspect that everyone at this school is a professional dancer]]."

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* ''Film/TankGirl''. During the "Let's Do It" CrowdSong number in Liquid Silver.

* ''[[Film/{{Spider-Man}} Spider-Man 3]]'': Peter's dance routine at the jazz bar
* ''{{Footloose}}'' where they do a similar whole school dance and everyone can dance despite being from a town/county where dancing is illegal.

* Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Everyone Says I Love You'' has this for pretty much all of its musical numbers (whether the dancers/singers be jewlery store clerks, hospital nurses or even ghosts), though the main singers are intentionally not the best singers in order to add a bit of realism to the numbers.
* In the ''BluesBrothers'' film, the crowd outside the music store breaks out into spontaneous dance once Ray Charles starts up ''Shake A Tail Feather''. But then, it's Ray Charles, so its sort of expected.

* ''[[{{Clerks}} Clerks II]]'' had one of these with that Jackson 5 song.
* ''[[SisterAct Sister Act 2]]'' also had one in that the kids had been practicing a big traditional choral presentation, but then at the last minute when faced up against a big-time school that did the same thing better than they could have, turn it into a mixed-style free-for-all version of the same basic song. Note that the accompanying music also keeps up with the different style changes, even though they just decided to do it this way a few minutes prior.
* In ''Film/TheMask'', the title character and Tina do a dance number together in the club without any practice. {{Justified|Trope}} because of the Mask's magical abilities.
** Not to mention a big dance number with a squad of police. At one point a woman doing a solo manages to express with her eyes that she's just as confused by this development as anyone else, and is rather freaked out by the fact that her body is doing this without her say-so.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark Bigger, Longer and Uncut'', Big Gay Al is talked into doing a musical number by the crowd. Big Gay Al says "Oh, but we haven't rehearsed!". The "I Feel Super" number follows.
* ''Film/TheFisherKing'' starring RobinWilliams: As Parry, Williams's character, loses himself in a romantic reverie, the buzzling crowd in New York Central Station turns into a grand ballroom party. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as it's an ImagineSpot.

* ''Film/ThirteenGoingOnThirty'': . Jenna starts dancing to ''Thriller'', and everyone at the party remembers and executes the choreography perfectly.
* In ''Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer'', after Tom sleeps with Summer he initiates SpontaneousChoreography.
* The most {{egregious}} example most likely can be found during the 10 minute dance number at McDonalds in ''MacAndMe''.
* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' - the Maitlands' ghostly powers make the Deetze's dinner party get up and dance to Harry Belafonte's " Banana Boat Song".
** Justified of course, since it was supernatural forces at work

* In the original ''StepUp'' Tyler and Nora go to a party and Nora's entire class breaks into SpontaneousChoreography.
* Film/TheMuppets: Pops up as Gary and Walter walk to the school to pick up Mary, then as the three walk to the bus stop.
** Evidently this is exhausting in-universe. When Mary looks out the window at Walter after saying it is fine that he's coming to LA you can see the townspeople who danced along with them lying around, exhausted. Then once they leave town, everyone collapses.

* The ''EddieAndTheCruisers'' sequel, ''Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives!'', includes a performance at a retro Sixties school dance where it becomes increasingly apparent that the students at this ordinary liberal arts college seem to know a lot of complicated dance choreography. The funny part is this actually has an impact on the plot when one of the hoofers starts dancing up a storm with [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Eddie_and_the_Cruisers_II__Eddie_Lives__1989.aspx?Page=9 the hotheaded protagonist's comely girlfriend]].

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in Terry Pratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels. Specifically, Captain Carrot is the kind of heroic protagonist with such charisma that, in his girlfriend's words, if he chose to start singing some sort of song like "My town" half the people in the street would join in and dance with him despite not possibly being able to know the dance steps.

* The "Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit" routine from ''Series/HowIMetYourMother.'' [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as it's a DreamSequence / ImagineSpot.
** Also in the seventh season premiere, during Barney and Robin's passionate dance. This one ''isn't'' a character's ImagineSpot like "Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit," but since the entire show is made up of Future!Ted's first- and second-hand memories, it could be explained as ''his'' ImagineSpot.
* Crosses over with a CrowdSong in ''{{Mongrels}}'' with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5zsxfhAh6Q Everyone Loves A Lesbian]]''.
* In ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E14InterpretiveDance Interpretive Dance]] Britta and Troy are able to pull off an improved dance duet seamlessly.

* Norm [=MacDonald=] lampshades this in a ''SaturdayNightLive'' [[http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96fcobras.phtml sketch]].

* Subverted in the ''ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' episode "High School Reunion, Part 2". The gang decide to wow all their former classmates with a dance routine, with perfect choreography and every boy band music video trope you can think of, and they pull it off, instantly becoming the most popular people at the party... [[UnreliableNarrator and then we see]] what's [[ImagineSpot actually going on]]: five very drunk people stumbling aimlessly around a dance floor, sweating like pigs, while the audience cringes in open-mouthed embarrassment.
* Featured in the game "Show Stopping Number" on ''WhoseLineIsItAnyway''
* Though it stops short of a song-and-dance number, every {{Toku}} hero has a series of poses he or she goes through before battle. Teams will do it in unison. Even when the ByThePowerOfGreyskull phrase is taught to them, the dance they do before never is and it's really unclear how it came to them or why they would. (SuperSentai and several but not all PowerRangers series even have the 'roll call,' where everyone does a ''unique'' dance and InTheNameOfTheMoon phrase. You're taught a couple words... and spontaneously do [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMsyTtNY5Xc this]].) It's especially visible in ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger, where the pre-more pose is more of a pre-morph ''samba.''

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* [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=840 Did]] [[QuestionableContent Marten and Dora]] [[DidYouJustHaveSex just have sex?]]
* In ''BadMachinery'' Lottie tries to do this, but despite the MassHypnosis of the student body, finds that no one joins in.

* WebVideo/MuppetViralVideos: Apparently, the Muppets' rendition of BohemianRhapsody resulted from a otherwise unrelated video-chat conference.

* Used and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. During Fry's holophoner concert, the Robot Devil interrupts and takes the musical on an entirely different course. Nevertheless, everyone, even the crowd, is able to stay perfectly in tune. Lampshaded when Zoidberg sings, in tune with the beat no less, "I can't believe everybody's just ad libbing!"
* Takes a more realistic turn in [[TotalDramaIsland Total Drama World Tour]]. While they don't dance in every song, the times that they do it's very simple and predictable so the other contestants would be able to catch on(like Alejandro holding Bridgette's hand in 'Before We Die' prompted everyone to make a big circle by holding hands,) or in songs like Leshawna's 'Sisters' the other two dancers aren't in-time with each other so it looks more real.
** TDWT does do this quite well. There are even times where you can see the contestants looking at each other so they can suddenly think of moves (like Lindsay and Bridgette in 'Come Fly with Us.' Other times, in 'What's Not to Love?' Courtney said before the song started that she was going to dance in the song, so Owen, D.J., and Leshawna just took after her.
* Played with in an earlier episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where the whole town joined in on a salesman's song about the benefits of having a monorail. Homer sang on after the song ended, and immediately realised his mistake.
** This happens again in a later episode where the Simpsons sing about the Kwik-E-Mart with Apu. Each family member (plus Apu) sing lines that ends in a rhyme with "Kwik-E-Mart," but Homer accidentally begins with it and interrupts it mid-line with his trademark grunt.
** And again with those who are gathered to tear down the burlesque house and people sing 'We Put the Spring in Sprinfield' ... except Marge who was out renting the bulldozer.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' do it at least OnceAnEpisode. Taken UpToEleven in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Rollercoaster: The Musical]], which features this in just about every other scene, and is naturally {{lampshaded}}.
* ''RockosModernLife'' had a MusicalEpisode where everyone broke out in song and dance numbers. When Rocko questions it, Heffer remarks that they have rehearsals, which Rocko has apparently been missing.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' does this a lot particularly the numbers "Shipoopi" (taken directly from TheMusicMan, and just as bizarre there), "A Bag of Weed" ("Me Old Bamboo" from ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang''), and "Mr. Booze".
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', the Music Meister's powers are only given as singing-based MindControl, but SpontaneousChoreography and [[ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction spontaneous wardrobe changes]] seem to fall under his RequiredSecondaryPowers. In another episode Huntress, Catwoman and Black Canary are sneaking backstage at the biggest hoodlum hangout in Gotham when the curtain goes up. They pretend to be the entertainment and launch into a risqué song about superheroes with spontaneous choreography and perfect unrehearsed harmony with both the house band and each other. The villains love it.

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* Parodied in ''ShaolinSoccer'', when Sing leads the customers at a rice cake stand in a spontaneous and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment wholly incongruous]] homage to ''Thriller''. Before the singing can begin, the shop owner screams at them, and they instantly return to their seats and continue eating as if nothing had happened.
* ''ThirteenGoingOnThirty'': . Jenna starts dancing to ''Thriller'', and everyone at the party remembers and executes the choreography perfectly.

* In the original ''StepUp'' Tyler and Nora go to a party and Nora's entire class breaks into SpontaneousChoreography. This troper thought it was apparently a school dance because Tyler seemed to be the only one who didn't know what to do.

--> "EVERYBODY DO THE FLOP!" *everyone in the room pratfalls in unison*

* WoodyAllen's ''Everyone Says I Love You'' has this for pretty much all of its musical numbers (whether the dancers/singers be jewlery store clerks, hospital nurses or even ghosts), though the main singers are intentionally not the best singers in order to add a bit of realism to the numbers.

[[caption-width-right:350:Typical. You begin singing at the street, and the people know the choreography.]]

* Justified in ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}'', where making people spontaneously start breakdancing is explicitly stated to be one of Ryutaros' powers. [[spoiler:He got it from the BigBad, who can also do it.]]

* MuppetViralVideos: Apparently, the Muppets' rendition of BohemianRhapsody resulted from a otherwise unrelated video-chat conference.

* ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG has Mr. Welch looking for an excuse to break out into song or dance.