Top 20 best-known dancers in the world
Ballet and dance artists, world > country
Updated · Wikipedia languages (language editions)
Top 20 in (60):
Why these 20
Ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about the person (Wikidata site links): a measure of how widely known someone is around the world, not of skill. It favours people from the past and from countries with many Wikipedia editions. Dancers are people Wikidata lists as a dancer or ballet dancer whose one-line English description names dance (dancer, ballerina, choreographer). That keeps entertainers known for dancing, such as Michael Jackson, Fred Astaire and Josephine Baker, next to ballet and modern-dance artists, and leaves out actors and singers who only danced now and then.
Built from the regions below: the best 20 of all of them.
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1
Michael Jackson
American singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer (1958–2009)
322 languages · 🇺🇸 United States
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2
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3
Janet Jackson
American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress (born 1966)
104 languages · 🇺🇸 United States
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4
Fred Astaire
American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer (1899–1987)
102 languages · 🇺🇸 United States
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5
Josephine Baker
American-born French dancer, singer and actress (1906–1975)
98 languages · 🇺🇸 United States
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6
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7
Mata Hari
Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan and spy (1876-1917)
91 languages · 🇳🇱 Kingdom of the Netherlands
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8
Gene Kelly
American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer (1912–1996)
87 languages · 🇺🇸 United States
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9
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10
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11
Patrick Swayze
American actor, producer, singer and dancer (1952–2009)
81 languages · 🇺🇸 United States
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12
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13
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14
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15
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16
Larisa Latynina
Soviet-Russian artistic gymnast and ballet dancer (born 1934)
69 languages · 🇷🇺 Russia
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17
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18
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19
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20
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Latvian-American dancer, choreographer and actor
65 languages · 🇺🇸 United States
How it is measured
Wikidata: occupation dancer (Q5716684) or ballet dancer (Q805221), English description containing dancer, ballerina or choreographer, 12 or more site links; country of citizenship gives the drill-down (a person with two citizenships counts in both).
References
- Wikidata query: dancers by Wikipedia language editions, Wikidata (CC0). Checked 2026-10-20 05:09 UTC.