"Staying Alive" Dance Pose



A Stock Parody and Stock Pose, when somebody dances in fiction, they're likely to mimic John Travolta's iconic pose from Saturday Night Fever, with their arm stretched out and hand pointing toward the sky.

Related to Everythings Funkier With Disco.

Compare Risky Business Dance.

Film

 * In Airplane!, during Ted Stryker's flashback about how he first met Elaine, before dancing with her, he throws his jacket off and strikes the pose, only for someone to throw the jacket back at him.
 * Tony P. does the move in Mystery Men, while dancing the Hustle in the Disco room. A couple of the other Disco Boys do it while fighting the Mystery Men; it seems to be not just a dance for them but also a part of their martial arts style.
 * Big Foot is seen doing it in the background on A Goofy Movie, listening to "Staying Alive" on a Walkman, no less.
 * Chicken Run is supposed to take place in The Fifties, but that doesn't stop the rats Nick and Fetcher from striking the pose during "Flip, Flop and Fly".

Live Action TV
"Travolta: It's just fun to have a new film like Pulp Fiction and forget about the old ones. What is that? Is that a light? points upward in this fashion"
 * In a game of "Superheroes" on the American edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Colin Mochrie does this while playing "Disco Boy".
 * On Married... with Children, Al's Let's Get Dangerous Catch Phrase was "Let's rock." When the show moved to Saturday nights for its final season, Al was in commercials saying "let's disco" and doing this.
 * John Travolta did this himself in an opening monologue on Saturday Night Live, referencing his various roles while saying he's not going to do that including Welcome Back, Kotter, Urban Cowboy, Look Who's Talking; and of course Saturday Night Fever.

Print
"Jon: *strikes pose* BOOGIE! BOOGIE! BOOGIE! *ball falls on head*
 * Mad Magazine: Alfred E. Neuman strikes the pose on the cover of an issue spoofing Saturday Night Fever.
 * Newspaper comics: There's a Garfield strip where Jon does this at a party. The disco ball then falls on his head.

Garfield: Let's boogie on home. I'll lead."

Video Games

 * The dancing zombie in Plants vs. Zombies does this move, which summons four other dancing zombies to join him.
 * The cats and dogs representing the player's lives in the Jimmy T. and Jimmy P. stages in Wario Ware: Smooth Moves.
 * The way in which Iku Nagae of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody brandishes her spell cards looks a lot like the pose, leading to a lot of Doujinshi associating her with disco.

Web Original

 * In Erfworld, prince Ansom did this while coordinating his army dance-fighting against the enemy thriller-dancing zombies. (It Makes Sense in Context)

Western Animation

 * The Simpsons: Disco Stu, as his name implies, does this often, even during a Civil War reenactment.
 * Futurama: In the episode "Less Than Hero", Fry adopts this pose when he becomes the retro-themed superhero Captain Yesterday.