# What is the greatest dance move in pop music?

> A few were invented on live television; the rest crawled out of clubs into every school disco. Sixty years of dance floors, one argument.

*By YPB Team · Published August 16, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-greatest-dance-move-in-pop-music*

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## Current results (0 votes)

1. **The Moonwalk**
   The backward glide Michael Jackson took to television on Motown 25 in 1983.
2. **The Thriller zombie dance**
   Michael Peters' undead choreography from the 1983 Thriller video, still copied at weddings.
3. **Voguing**
   The ballroom poses Madonna took mainstream with the 1990 single Vogue.
4. **The Twist**
   The hip-swivelling craze Chubby Checker set off in 1960.
5. **Single Ladies choreography**
   The three-dancer routine from Beyonce's 2008 video, filmed in one black-and-white take.
6. **The anti-gravity lean**
   The forward tilt from Smooth Criminal, patented in 1993 with special stage shoes.
7. **Elvis's hip swivel**
   The leg-shaking that got Presley filmed from the waist up in 1956.
8. **James Brown's splits and spin**
   The drop-into-splits and pivot back up that closed his shows for decades.
9. **The Gangnam Style horse**
   Psy's invisible-reins gallop from the 2012 video that first passed a billion views.
10. **The Hammer dance**
   The scuttling side-step MC Hammer set to U Can't Touch This in 1990.
11. **The Macarena**
   The arm-sequence-and-hop that Los del Rio turned into a global 1996 wedding standard.
12. **Breakdancing windmill**
   The floor spin from 1970s Bronx b-boying, now an Olympic event.
13. **The Charleston**
   The kicking, swinging step that defined dance floors in the 1920s.

Tags: pop, music, 80s, performances