Courteney Cox brilliantly recreates her Bruce Springsteen 'Dancing In The Dark' video dance

11 June 2024, 13:38

Courteney Cox got her major breakthrough thanks to Bruce Springsteen.
Courteney Cox got her major breakthrough thanks to Bruce Springsteen. Picture: Courteney Cox TikTok/Getty/Columbia

By Thomas Edward

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It was how she got her breakthrough.

As a 20-year-old actor, Courteney Cox only had one acting credit to her name after starring in US television series, As The World Turns.

That all changed after Cox won her audition to feature alongside one of rock music's biggest talents.

For the music video to 'Dancing In The Dark', the movie director thought she was the perfect young 'fan' to feature alongside none other than Bruce Springsteen.

Famously, Bruce picks Courteney from the front row of his adoring crowd to dance on stage alongside her.

Now, forty years later, Cox has recreated the now-iconic dance scene between the two for a new TikTok video.

In the video app's latest viral trend, young TikTokers are encouraging their parents to recreate their dance moves from their teenage heydays whilst Bronski Beat's 'Smalltown Boy' plays over the top.

But given she was responsible for one of the 1980s' most beloved dance moves, Courteney has put her own spin on the trend.

Starting off the video in a fleeced hoody, shaking her hips to 'Smalltown Boy', she zips off her jacket to reveal the same t-shirt she wore all those years ago.

Then the music comes to an abrupt halt, with 'Dancing In The Dark' playing instead.

Safe to say, it sent the TikTok world crazy, with one follower commenting: "This is easily one of the best yet!"

"You win this trend," wrote another follower, with more people only just realising it was Cox in the video: "I never knew that was Courteney Cox!"

As we now know, Cox went on to have a stellar career on-screen, becoming one of television's most beloved characters in Monica Gellar from Friends, as well as starring in the Scream horror movie franchise.

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark (Official Video)

The 'Dancing In The Dark' music video "got me in the door to so many places" Cox later recalled, though didn't initially want to be the person Bruce dragged on stage.

Planted in the front of the crowd, the video was filmed during a Springsteen concert at the St. Paul Civic Center in Minnesota on 29th June 1994.

Though there was adequate lighting, it was filmed twice throughout the concert, with Courteney having to pull off the dance moves twice on the night in front of thousands of sweaty, frenzied fans.

As much as it helped Cox kick off her career, the music video got heavy airplay on MTV, in turn introducing Springsteen to a much younger audience and establishing him as one of the decade's greatest icons.