TINA TURNER“Sarah Vaughn, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan … historical women who have performed on this very stage. When I was a little girl I dreamed of being on this stage. But I knew I needed all the right elements. Like the beat of Donna Summer, the spirit of Mahalia Jackson, the jazz of Ella, or Nancy–band, gimme some! Lena Horne, Anita Baker, Diana Ross, Gladys, Janet, and the beautiful melodies of Whitney. The legacy they have bestowed are simply irreplaceable. But there is one legend who has the essence of all of these things. The glamour. The soul. The passion. The strength. The talent. Ladies and gentlemen, stand on your feet and give it up for the Queen.” The cringeworthy, but accurate words of the grammy writers and Beyonce, pre "Eat the cake, Anna Mae." Tina Turner is without a doubt one of the greatest and most influential legends of all time due to her versatility in everything from genre to vocals to dance, the focus of this post.
JANET JACKSONI would say Miss Janet Jackson has the most impactful choreography mainstream music has seen with her famous headset mic and synchronized routines. Janet's moves are memorable, precise, fluid, classy, sexual, and simply
everything. The teen pop and RnB dominant field of the 90s and 2000s were basically defined by Janet's prodigies (
look at all the artists she influenced ). And she is still killing it on the Unbreakable tour showing this generation's struggle dancers how it's done at 49!
MADONNAThe best selling female artist ever put in a lot of work to reinvent herself and bring something new every single era. One of the things Madonna needed to keep improving and changing her performances was choreography even though she is more theatrics focused. She became adept at many styles of dance including Latin, contemporary, and tap dance. What was most impressive was her athleticism and flexibility. If you ignore the start of the fake British accent in the video, you will see her executing many pirouettes, illusions, and lifts with great strength and lines.
PAULA ABDULPaula was a fairly popular choreograper doing routines for The Jacksons and Miss Janet herself, so it's natural that her own solo performances would be great. Not even including her choreography feats for others, I would honestly say that Paula may be the finest dancer music has seen in terms of complexity and technique. The tap dance, differently styled multiple turn pirouettes, acrobatics, isolations, and flexibility speak for themselves. Many health issues and injuries unfortunately put set backs to her career. She really deserves more recognition for her choreography and dance, especially from younger generations instead of just being known as an American Idol judge.
MARIAH CAREYMessiah Carey is known for her out of the world vocals, but she always wanted to be more than that. She was marketed as the good girl next door who sang fun pop songs and big RnB ballads by former husband, the devil Tommy Mottola. He didn't allow her to tour, wear any "raunchy" clothing, or do any choreography until she broke free and divorced him like a Butterfly. Mariah then popularized big rap-sung collaborations, wore short dresses and shorts, and even added in some dancing. These Honey performances turned a bit awkward and stiff (Ariana clearly drew inspiration in her terrible Problem dance), but Mariah at least had sex appeal. It's too bad she didn't have much natural rhythm and couldn't get much pratice because of the devil's basic house arrest.
SHAKIRAShakira is one of the biggest global superstars and probably the world's biggest Latin star. She shows a great mastery of Latin dance and belly dancing in particular throughout her videos and live performances. When someone says Shakira, you instantly think of how her hips don't lie (i'm lame i know)
AALIYAHAaliyah had this "swag" to her that simply elevated her choreography even if it wasn't on the complexity level of Janet, Paula, or even Madonna. She was the smoothest dancer around and simply made everything look effortless, fluid, sexy, and ~cool. Kind of like a successful attempt at what Rihanna attempts when she tries choreography for once.
MISSY ELLIOTTMissy is undeniably not just a legendary rapper, but performer. She brougt her visuals to the next level and still brings it today, saving the Super Bowl from Kathryn Hudson and The Voice finale from the likes of Struggle Neiner.
MYAMya is the best dancer of the 90s/early 2000s choreography dominated scene and could probably compete with the greats like Janet and Paula, while obliterating the likes of
Beyonce, Aaliyah, and even Ciara. She is the most versatile dancer reaching near professional levels in
tap dance, jazz, ballet, hip hop, contemporary, etc. Tap dance was her first love and she was able to work and keep up with one of the
most renown tap dancers in the world and
freestyle with her dancers. When dancing in any genre she displays complicated foot work, flexibility, fluidity, and extremely crisp and clean moves.
BRITNEY SPEARSMiss Britney Spears is basically Miss Janet Jackson 2.0, the most reminescent choreography being in Overprotected, Boys, Slave 4 U, and Me Against the Music, which ironically features Madonna. Britney and her choreographers (some who have also choreographed for Janet) clearly take inspiration from Janet with their precise, sharp, charasmatic, and sexual moves. Britney isn't as clean technically though with not always finished movements and not as complex footwork. However, she isn't just a Janet copycat and adds her own flairs like the tap dancing at the EMAs and more prominently her history as a gymnast. Britney was a gymnast when she was younger and it shows in her back handsprings, front walkovers, cartwheels, scales, and multiple turn pirouettes. Sadly after multiple knee injuries and her breakdown, she has lost her confidence and is very stiff on stage, but can occasionally bring it in
rehearsals.
JENNIFER LOPEZJennifer Lopez started off as back up dancer for Janet and has maintained her high dance level into 2015, proving it with her AMAs opening killing the choreography better than any of the original artists (Nicki, Bieber, The Weeknd, etc.) could. She has had basically no decline... In fact, I would say she improved from her 1999 where she already could dance house, jazz, hip hop, and Latin. Her best performance was probably her 2013 AMAs tribute to Celia Cruz. That foot work... Standing ovation totally deserved.
CHRISTINA AGUILERAXtina is known for her big voice, but she definitely knows how to perform. Afer all, she is a MMCer. During her debut era, her label really wanted her to do choreography along with pop bops to be competitive in the teen pop invasion of Britney, BSB, and NSYNC. To do this they enlisted top choreographer, Tina Landon (Janet, Britney, JLO, Ricky Martin, etc.) and Xtina served better dancing than today's pop acts and top notch vocals (luckily the choreography limited her from being too over the top with melisma like she will be later in her career). Although her 4 step choreography and dance breaks was mostly during her debut era, she also coined the iconic slut drop in Dirrty, had nice dance moments in Burlesque, and continued to be a great performer regardless if there was choreography or not.
PINKPink is simply incredible. She is one of the most versatile dancers out there-hip hop, contemporary, and of course her signature acrobatics, while doing 100% LIVE vocals. In the beginning of her RnB career, she served great hip hop, Janet inspired, moves like in her tribute. Later on, she did great contemporary dance, lifts, back walkovers, and of course flew in the air with perfect form.
CHRISTINA MILIANChristina Milian of JLO stolen vocals, Dip it Low, and Taylor Swift bestie fame use to do choreography. Idk, it was better than today's struggle. k
KELLY ROWLANDKelly honestly has a lot more confidence and energy when performing with Destiny's Child (she absolutely murdered Beyonce's Super Bowl), but even with some breath control and consistency issues when carrying a whole song/performance by herself, she can serve great choreography and vocals (
see Fantasy tribute to Mariah for vocals). Those Matthew Knowles (aka scum) boot camps really paid off combined with her natural rhythm and clear Janet influence.
BEYONCEBeyonce is truly an all around phenomenal performer- near flawless vocals, lots of energy, lots of charisma, and good dancing. Honestly, her choreography is not very difficult, but not anyone can look good or like Bey doing it (not even her backup dancers- look at that Tidal Feeling Myself dance break!). She is one of the hardest workers in music and hits her usual booty shakes and hair flips very well and is capable of some more complex choreography like in Run the World, End of Time, Nasty Freestyle (she goes a bit off balance on the spin though), and the Janet inspired Ring the Alarm. Her fluidity and quickness really makes her stand out from her back up dancers and elevates her varying levels of choreography. Oh and the Single Ladies choreography is iconic tbh.
HILARY DUFFLol... Sparks... lol ... Tinder... lol...
CIARACiara is the best freestyle dancer. If someone went one on one with her in the streets... I don't know if they could put up a fight. She is extremely fluid and flexibile capable of the most impressive isolations, walks, splits, and back bends. Her performance at the Janet BET tribute showed that she was also capable of executing Janet's sharp choreography, but also some flaws like timing (she was half a step faster than the rest of the dancers...)
RIHANNABadgalriri... take that how you like. Honestly, she has
sex appeal and agility and access to great choreographers like Tina Landon, but no precision at all. Most of the time she goes a more bff Katy Perry route with theatrics and like arm movements, but she also tries some choreography. It turns into like stiff pussy patting that's a bit over the place. But again, she has some agility, rhythm, and of course sex appeal, so it won't look as bad as say... Taylor Swift and I guess she's a little bit better than her bff Kathryn.
NICOLE SCHERZINGERNicole is the all around performer who could give Beyonce a run for her money, if you don't count that Gaga actually writes songs unlike those two. She is a near flawless singer and dancer and at a higher dance level than most since Pussycat Dolls started as a dance group. Very fluid and sexy moves. Sad that her solo career flopped, but glad that PCD had lots of success, since Nicole is very, very, very, talented.
LADY GAGAGaga is another hard worker who strives to be an all around everything with song writing, near flawless vocals, theatrics, and passable dance. She had a few really big years of fame and it's a shame gimmicks got the best of her because she was the hardest worker of the 2010s. In terms of choreography, she is kind of stiff, but she works hard and got the basics down so it's passable or at least better than her peers minus Beyonce and Pink who are from the last generation of stars. She can execute pirouettes and steps, so it's umm a I guess a little less than Xtina's level.
KERI HILSONKeri Hilson of Knock You Down and hive fame did choreography and had rhythm. Shame she was killed by the hive. K
DEMI LOVATOWas it evil of me to include this? But hey it's choreography and Demi had more rhythm than peers like Selena and Ariana. Her dancing peak was when she was
17in camp rock 2. After that she did choreography like in Who's that Boy? on her Unbroken tour. It was kind of embarrassing but again choreography unlike her later years just awkwardly trying to be sexy grinding on Iggy.
SELENA GOMEZSelena's idols are Britney and Janet... it's too bad she can't dance like them. Selena's dancing peak was probably Another Cinderalla Story, but who knows what happened to those lessons. During Stars Dance, she tried to channel Britney/Janet in Slow Down and Come and Get It and it was ehh. Her best choreography in her music career was probably her Beat/Work cover. It's still a bit stiff and basically arm dancing and hip popping, but the 2nd half is kind of cool.
ARIANA GRANDEOh, Ariana. I didn't know she danced. I thought she played with her ponytail... or whatever. Just kidding. Fake Mariah shade. But when she first started dancing in
Problem, it was honestly a copy of Mariah's honey choreography and worse than everyone on this list. Even Riri had the right to laugh. Ariana had no sex appeal, a baby face, a stupid high ponytail, basic moves, looked dead and blank faced, super stiff, etc. a complete mess all around. But through lots of touring, she actually got to a kind of non embarrasing level in Focus. She hits her marks and developed enough flexibility to do a cool high kick.
ZENDAYAZendaya has been taking hip hop dance lessons since she was young and was on a dance based Disney show "Shake It Up" plus learned multiple styles on "Dancing with the Stars." She had nice choreography to accompany her bop "Replay."
TINASHETinashe is this generation's all arounder- she produces, writes, sings, and dances pretty well. She looks up to Britney and Janet and strives to make choreography based videos and performances that are lacking these days. She has taken a lot of dance classes since she was little and has impressed with her versatility. Great hip hop dancer, super fluid, very flexibile, capable of lifts, can do super intricate foot work, and pirouette like crazy. She absolutely kills it in her own music, but she was a bit off in the Janet BET tribute. Her moves are very fluid, but the booty popping and smiling was bit out of place for the Janet~mood and she wasn't quite sharp enough for Janet choreo. But again lots and lots of potential and she trains hard.
FLEUR EASTFleur East was the runner up in X Factor 2014, but she honestly deserved to win. She is a really great performer that serves great live vocals and dancing. When performing with Little Mix, she was able to immediately be in sync with the group performing flawless group choreography to Black Magic and her own UK hit Sax.
NATALIE LA ROSENatalie did some nice choreography aka better than the Disney/Nick and Rihanna peeps on her hit single Somebody, which is basically a redone version of Whitney's flawless I Wanna Dance with Somebody.
PIA MIAPia Mia does nice choreography insert same definition from Natalie, except I don't know maybe higher level lower level like the Christinas levels. I don't know. Just trying to be as inclusive and reportive as possible.
