Jenna Dewan
Jenna Dewan is an actor, born 1980.
Dance came first and it was not a hobby. Dewan worked as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson and then for Christina Aguilera, Pink and Missy Elliott, which is a career in itself and a very specific training: hit the mark, sell it to the back row, then do it again identically.
Screen work followed the skill. Two dance films arrived in 2006, Take the Lead and Step Up, and the second one stuck. Nora Clark is still the role her name attaches to. What is worth noticing is that she did not stay in dance movies. She spent the following decade building an ordinary television career instead: Bunny Janie in The Playboy Club, Freya Beauchamp in Witches of East End, Lucy Lane in Supergirl, Joanna in Soundtrack, and Bailey Nune in The Rookie, the steadiest job she has had.
The film work in between is uneven and she is usually the best-calibrated thing in it: the horror sequel The Grudge 2, the reunion comedy 10 Years, thrillers like Setup. Running alongside all of it is the other track, hosting World of Dance, where the original expertise finally got acknowledged on its own terms instead of being smuggled into a role.
Movies (15)
- Step Up (2006)
- Take the Lead (2006)
- The Wedding Year (2019)
- The Grudge 2 (2006)
- Setup (2011)
- Tamara (2005)
- 10 Years (2012)
- Berlin, I Love You (2019)
- American Virgin (2009)
- The Six Wives of Henry Lefay (2009)
- Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal (2008)
- Love Lies Bleeding (2008)
- She Made Them Do It (2012)
- Slightly Single in L.A. (2013)
- Dark Shadows (2005)
TV (11)
Where to start with Jenna Dewan
Step Up is the honest starting point and it holds up better than its sequels, largely because the dancing is filmed properly and she is a real dancer doing real choreography. Pair it with Take the Lead from the same year if you want to see how much of the performance is technique.
For the acting, 10 Years is the best thing she is in, a low-key ensemble comedy in which she plays reserve rather than warmth, and The Rookie is where she looks most comfortable, procedural work with a long runway.
Witches of East End and Supergirl are the genre stops and both use her well within their limits. World of Dance closes the circle, and is the only one of these where she is unmistakably the expert in the room.