Best Step Up Dance Scenes: Every Finale and Battle, Ranked

The standout dance scene in step up 2006 is the senior showcase, where Tyler Gage and Nora Clark perform her ensemble routine with younger dancers from the Maryland School of the Arts. The film, shot on location in Baltimore (City Pier and Booker T. Washington Middle School are among the reported locations), earns that finish slowly, because most of what comes before it is rehearsal.

Tyler, played by Channing Tatum, is a street dancer sentenced to community service as a janitor at the school after he and his friends Mac and Skinny wreck part of it. When Nora's partner Andrew is injured, Tyler learns the routine and steps in. The two clash over style, and, as they rehearse, Nora begins to picture the piece as a group number, so Tyler brings in younger dancers. Andrew later quits because the choreography is too hard, and Nora has to rework the routine without a partner.

Then comes the loss of Skinny, which pushes Tyler and Mac to rethink their choices. Tyler returns just in time for the showcase, the group performs Nora's original choreography, and the response is strong. Director Gordon then offers Tyler a place at the school. The score is by Aaron Zigman, who also composed the second and fourth films. For the two leads, see tyler gage step up and nora step up.

The Step Up 2 final dance takes place at The Streets, the underground contest where Andie West's new crew competes while the school's fundraiser goes on without them. Step up 2 the streets follows Andie (Briana Evigan), a Baltimore street dancer who is still grieving her mother and lives with her guardian, Sarah. Her old crew, the 410, throw her out when they learn she is studying at the Maryland School of the Arts.

Andie and Chase Collins (Robert Hoffman) answer by building a new crew from outcast students. After a prank on Tuck, the leader of the 410, the 410 attack Chase and wreck the school's dance studio, and Blake Collins, the school's director and Chase's older brother, expels Andie over the damage. She accepts the blame to protect her crew.

On the night of the fundraiser, word arrives that The Streets is happening, and the crew skips the event to compete. Blake goes looking for his students, finds them at the competition and, watching the dancing, accepts that street dance is a real art form. He lets Andie back into the school. Moose, played by Adam Sevani, is billed fifth in this film; see moose step up and andie step up for more on both.

The Step Up 3 final dance is the World Jam championship final, where Luke's Pirates beat Julien's Samurai crew. In step up 3d, Moose and Camille Gage move to New York City for college, and Moose is trying to keep a promise to stop dancing. He is pulled into a street battle, wins it, and is invited by Luke (Rick Malambri) to join the Pirates, a crew living in a warehouse that could soon be sold at auction.

The road to the final has several smaller dance scenes of its own. Natalie (Sharni Vinson) joins the Pirates while hiding that she is the sister of Julien, the Samurai leader, and Moose and Camille make up after an argument through a dance on the street. After the warehouse is lost, Moose rebuilds the Pirates with Camille and friends from the MSA Crew. Julien then owns their building and offers to give it back if they lose the contest, which they refuse. With Natalie's help on the routine, the Pirates take the World Jam title.

The film was shot in 3D, and TheWrap reported camera breakdowns, custom rigs and longer shots during production, while Disney's archive describes it as the first 3D film shot entirely in New York City. Bear McCreary composed the score. It is also the highest grossing of the five films, at about $159 million worldwide on a $30 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo. Luke passing his sneakers to Moose at the end marks Moose as the new leader.

The Step Up 4 dance scenes are the flash mobs staged by The Mob around Miami, starting with a street takeover on Ocean Drive and ending with a protest dance at a development announcement. In step up revolution, Sean Asa (Ryan Guzman) and his best friend Eddy (Misha Gabriel) lead the crew, and by day they work as hotel waiters. Their performances are posted online to win views and a cash prize.

Emily Anderson (Kathryn McCormick) arrives hoping to win a place in a professional dance company, meets Sean and joins the crew while keeping quiet about her father, a developer. When she learns his plan would clear the neighborhood where the crew lives and hangs out, including the bar run by Sean's uncle, Eddy exposes her. A fight follows, Sean is arrested and Emily bombs her audition.

The finale is the payoff. The Mob teams up with another local crew and crashes the public announcement with a large dance protest, and Emily's father, seeing how happy his daughter is among these dancers, drops his plan and chooses to revitalize the community. The crew then gets an offer to dance in commercials for a sportswear brand. The film was shot in native 3D, reportedly with Red Epic cameras. See emily step up revolution and sean step up.

The Step Up All In dance scene most people mean is the finale in Las Vegas, where the LMNTRIX and The Mob perform together at The Vortex. Step up all in brings Sean Asa and The Mob from Miami to Los Angeles, where they are rejected at audition after audition and then lose a battle to the Grim Knights. The rest of the crew goes home, but Sean stays, working as a janitor at a dance center run by Moose's grandparents.

With Moose, Sean recruits Andie West and other dancers to form a new crew, the LMNTRIX (see step up dance crews). They win a place in The Vortex, a contest with a three-year Las Vegas show as the prize. In an exhibition battle against The Mob, Sean pushes Andie to try a trick she is not ready for, and she walks off. That trick is the thread the film pulls through to the end.

Before the finals, Sean tells the crowd to stop worrying about winning and enjoy the show. Sean and Andie close the routine with the trick that caused their fight, land it and kiss. The producers overrule the host, Alexxa Brava, and name the LMNTRIX the winners. Jeff Cardoni composed the score, and the film was shot around Vancouver and the Las Vegas Valley. The soundtrack album, Step Up All In (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), includes Revolution by Diplo, Do It by Pitbull, Delirious (Boneless) by Steve Aoki, Chris Lake and Tujamo, and How You Do That by B.o.B. The track listings do not say which song plays under the final routine. For the full music picture, see step up soundtrack.

In my opinion, the Step Up All In finale is the best of the five, with the World Jam final close behind, and this order is a matter of taste rather than fact. The reasoning for each one follows.

1. Step Up All In: the LMNTRIX finale. It pays off the one thing the film sets up in its exhibition battle, Andie walking off over a trick, and then lets Sean and Andie land it in front of a crowd. Putting The Mob and the LMNTRIX on the same stage also closes a story about two crews that fell out. Perhaps it is the most satisfying because the routine answers the argument.

2. Step Up 3D: the World Jam final. It has the biggest scale in the series, with Moose, Camille, Luke and Natalie all earning their place, and the 3D photography with custom rigs and longer shots suits a dance competition well. That being said, it leans more on spectacle than on a single emotional beat.

3. Step Up 2: The Streets. The scene works because of what it changes: Blake Collins goes looking for his students, finds them at the competition and leaves convinced that street dance is art. It could be argued that no other finale in the series makes such a clear argument.

4. Step Up (2006): the senior showcase. Smaller than the later finales, but it is the best use of character, since every rehearsal, from Tyler stepping in for Andrew to Nora reworking the routine, leads into it.

5. Step Up Revolution: the development protest. The flash mob idea is fun, and the Ocean Drive takeover is an enjoyable set piece. It ranks last for me only because the stakes are settled by Emily's father changing his mind, rather than by the dancing itself.

So, who is the best dancer in the Step Up films? The films never say, but my pick would be Moose, since Adam Sevani plays him across three films (Step Up 2: The Streets, Step Up 3D and Step Up All In). For families choosing by rating, all five films carry a PG-13 in the US, so check the official rating for your own household. If you want to watch these in sequence, start with step up movies in order, and see step up movies ranked for the full film ranking.