Dance in Film · 1952
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The definitive Hollywood musical, featuring Gene Kelly's legendary choreography and the iconic title sequence.
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 dance musical centred on Swing & Jazz, Musical Theatre Dance, Tap Dance. For dancers, it's a chance to see these styles performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
Jump to the 12 indexed dance sequences ↓
Dance styles featured
Where to watch: Streaming (various)
The dance sequences in Singin' in the Rain
12 sequences, 9 with a timestamp — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
Danced by Gene Kelly; Donald O'Connor · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
Kelly and O'Connor grinning through the violin duet while Don's voice-over insists that their rough vaudeville apprenticeship was dignified.
Dora Bailey's red-carpet question cuts from Don's motto of “Dignity. Always dignity.” to Kelly and O'Connor as children playing harmonicas and then as vaudevillians in check suits with miniature violins. Their synchronized bows and tapping keep contradicting Don's claims of conservatory refinement, and the audience's thrown objects finish the joke by turning the polished publicity story back into hard touring work.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Start of the Lockwood-Brown flashback in the named Singin.in.the.Rain.1952.1080p.BluRay.H264.AAC-RARBG reference; commercial versions may shift by logos or restoration cards.
Danced by Debbie Reynolds; chorus ensemble · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
Debbie Reynolds emerging from the party cake, then accidentally planting another piece of cake on Lina Lamont.
At R. F. Simpson's party, the Coconut Grove dancers snap through Charleston kicks until Kathy rises from the center of a giant pink cake, forcing Don to recognize the “serious actress” inside the floor show. The chorus's repeated leg swings make Reynolds one part of a bright flapper machine, but the scene ends by isolating her comic aim: the cake she throws at Don lands squarely on Lina.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Song entrance in the named 1080p Blu-ray H264 AAC RARBG reference; rental editions may shift slightly.
Danced by Donald O'Connor · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
O'Connor's wall runs, backflips, mannequin duet, and final crash through the scenery flat.
Alone in a studio workroom, O'Connor turns a headless mannequin into a flirtation partner, tangles himself around it, and then lets the scenery become an obstacle course. The long build makes his consecutive wall runs and backflips feel like an escalating dare; the decisive payoff is his charge through a flimsy set wall, after which Cosmo resurfaces from the wreckage still trying to obey “the show must go on.”
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. Blu-ray-reference start; the complete legal standalone upload is from Turner Classic Movies.
Danced by Jimmy Thompson; Debbie Reynolds; Rita Moreno; dance ensemble · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
The parade of increasingly extravagant 1928 outfits—and Don suddenly recognizing Kathy among the chorus dancers.
A megaphone-bearing crooner introduces Monumental's “new fashions for 1928,” and the montage keeps rebuilding the soundstage around beaded showgirls, geometric chorus lines, pajamas, tennis clothes, opera furs and an enormous bridal veil. Snatches of “Should I?,” “Wedding of the Painted Doll” and “I've Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'” overlap before “Beautiful Girl” takes over, making the number itself resemble a studio catalogue assembled at production-line speed. Kathy begins buried among that machinery of glamour, then Don spots her in the line and pulls the plot's missing person out of the spectacle.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Start of the montage's humming in the named 1080p Blu-ray H264 AAC RARBG reference; rental versions may vary.
Danced by Gene Kelly; Debbie Reynolds · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
The empty soundstage becoming a moonlit balcony through a ladder, colored lights, a wind machine and a painted backdrop.
Don makes the romance in front of Kathy by dragging over a stepladder, switching on a painted sunset and “500,000 kilowatts of stardust,” and starting an industrial fan for a summer breeze. Their soft-shoe duet begins with the studio apparatus plainly visible, then a slow move closes the distance until the purple backdrop and the dancers' shadows swallow the equipment. Kelly's declaration lands because Don can finally be sincere only after admitting that he needs a manufactured setting.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Don leads Kathy onto the empty stage at this point in the named 1080p Blu-ray H264 AAC RARBG reference; the sung phrase begins at 00:42:41.
Danced by Gene Kelly; Donald O'Connor · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
Kelly and O'Connor turning a tongue-twister lesson into tabletop tap while the speech teacher watches helplessly.
The diction coach's careful recitation of “Moses supposes” is seized by Kelly and O'Connor, who split its consonants into syncopated call-and-response and then answer the words with rapid tap breaks. They climb onto the professor's desk, vault chairs and keep redirecting his lesson back at him until the room's books and furniture function as percussion. The teacher's frozen disapproval makes the men's exact unison funnier: every rebellious accent proves that they have mastered the sounds he meant to discipline.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. The diction coach introduces the Moses tongue-twister here in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; the legal TCM upload contains the complete routine.
Danced by Gene Kelly; Donald O'Connor; Debbie Reynolds · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
The trio's raincoat chorus, mock bullfight and perfectly timed tumble over the sofa.
After deciding at 1:30 a.m. to rebuild The Duelling Cavalier as a musical, Kelly, O'Connor and Reynolds carry “Good Morning” through Don's mansion as a three-way relay of taps, greetings and mock languages. They turn yellow raincoats and hats into a miniature chorus costume, shift into a comic bullfight, and keep accelerating around the sofa until all three topple over its back together. Reynolds matching the two veteran dancers beat for beat makes the conversion plan visible: Kathy is no longer outside Don and Cosmo's partnership.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. Song entrance in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; Warner Bros. supplies the legal standalone clip.
Danced by Gene Kelly · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
The lamppost swing, umbrella play and Gene Kelly splashing both feet into the puddles under backlit rain.
Kelly dismisses the taxi, folds the umbrella and lets the downpour become his partner, first circling a lamppost and then planting both feet into the curbside puddles. Backlit water on the two-block MGM street makes each kick spray visibly while seven extended shots preserve the route from private humming to full-bodied tap. A policeman's silent arrival breaks the spell at its most childlike point; Don answers with a sheepish grin and gives his umbrella to a soaked passerby even though he no longer wants shelter.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. Kelly begins humming here in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; Warner Bros. supplies the legal standalone clip.
Danced by Gene Kelly; Cyd Charisse; dance ensemble · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen (uncredited)
Cyd Charisse's green-dress entrance and the enormous white scarf billowing around her duet with Kelly.
Don's pitch turns a repeated “Gotta dance” into a young hoofer's trip through neon audition doors, crowded rehearsal rooms and the gangster's nightclub, where Cyd Charisse stops him by hooking one green-clad leg over a chair and nudging his hat with her foot. The fantasy then empties into a vast white space: airplane motors lift a fifty-foot silk scarf behind Charisse while Kelly reaches through it, converting the hard Broadway hustle into a windblown pas de deux. When the ballet drops him back on the street, the same slogan drives him past the successful star who once ignored him, so the thirteen-minute detour ends exactly where its ambition began.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Don begins demonstrating the proposed Broadway Melody number here in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; the continuous sequence runs roughly thirteen minutes.
Broadway Melody Ballet
Dream BalletDanced by Gene Kelly; Cyd Charisse; ensemble · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen
Cyd Charisse's green-dress entrance and the number's shift from crowded Broadway to an abstract windblown duet.
Editing and production design move between physical space and a heightened performance world without losing the dancers' bodily through-line. The choreography externalizes thought through scale, repetition and contrast, so the sequence lands as an argument made in movement.
Fit as a Fiddle
Broadway TapDanced by Gene Kelly; Donald O'Connor · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen
The vaudeville violin duet and its grinning, competitive unison.
The camera favors sustained, full-body framing, preserving the phrasing and the relationship between the dancers and the floor. The movement is allowed to build through complete musical ideas, so the payoff comes from performance rather than editorial camouflage.
Singin' in the Rain title number
Broadway TapDanced by Gene Kelly · Choreography Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen
The lamppost swing, umbrella play and splashing puddles.
The camera favors sustained, full-body framing, preserving the phrasing and the relationship between the dancers and the floor. The movement is allowed to build through complete musical ideas, so the payoff comes from performance rather than editorial camouflage.
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