D.W., Dancing Queen

Summary
Binky isn't having much luck teaching D.W. to dance, but is it the student or the teacher who needs more practice?

Plot
Miss Morgan's preschool class are on a field trip at Lakewood Elementary School, where Arthur goes to school, for Project Day. D.W. walks to the table where Arthur and his friends are sitting at, and she asks if she can sit with them, but Arthur refuses and says she's supposed to sit with the preschoolers. Arthur then overhears D.W. telling everyone that he continued having nightmares about his underwear to embarrass him more, and then she pulls out a pair of sky blue boxer shorts with rabbits on them, and everyone starts laughing, much to his embarrassment.

After lunch, Mr. Ratburn tells his students that they should get ready to know their pre-school buddies, listen to what they do, and present the project to the entire school. Binky is paired with D.W. Arthur and Buster are paired with The Tibbles. Binky asks D.W. what she's interested in, and she tells him she is interested in unicorns. Binky then asks Mr. Ratburn if he may trade partners, and Mr. Ratburn shakes his head no.

At the Reads' house, D.W. asks for a play, but Binky refuses. Binky decides he wants to teach D.W. how to dance, but D.W. doesn't know how to dance. Then D.W. changes into her striped gymnastics suit and Binky brings in a stereo player. Binky then starts playing music and shows D.W. some dance moves. D.W. then attempts to do what he showed her, but she ends up falling backwards. Outside, Binky's friends Molly and Rattles are walking Rattles' dog and see him inside at the Reads' teaching D.W. how to dance. Back in the house, Binky show D.W a Grand Jeté. D.W. attempts to do that, but Binky points out she's making mistakes, and then stops playing the music.

The next day, Binky arrives at the Reads' wearing a suit and tie, and explains that it's what teachers wear. He suggests that D.W. should refer to him as "Mr. Barnes" (not to be confused with his father with an unknown given name), and D.W. retaliates the suggestion by saying he has a screw loose.

The next day, Binky then shows D.W. a video on television about a dancer named Gene Kelby who is doing dance moves on his toes on one foot, raising his leg, carrying a mop, and spinning in circles. After showing D.W., he rewinds the cassette, then D.W. copies the dance move and accidentally breaks her family's most favorite standing lamp that always sat in the living room. Binky then hands D.W. a stack of cards that tell her to copy the dance movies, and tells her that there will be an upcoming exam.

The next day, Binky shows D.W. how to tap-dance. D.W. attempts to do it, but only tapped once, and Binky is unhappy she didn't try hard enough, and D.W. blames it on the sneakers that are sticking to the floor. D.W. proves that she can't read, since she's four years old. Binky then grades D.W. a C, but D.W. doesn't care and suggests another project. D.W. proves she's not doing very well, but Binky claims he's trying his hardest to teach her.

As Binky leaves the Reads' house, his friends call him "twinkle toes" and start making fun of him. They think D.W.'s a baby and Binky lies to them saying that he's teaching D.W. fight moves. Rattles then looks through the cards that Binky wrote to teach D.W. Molly and Rattles wished that Binky should teach them those martial arts moves too.

On the Lakewood Elementary School Playground, Binky starts teaching Rattles and Molly some dancing moves, but he points out they're making mistakes like D.W. did earlier. Molly claims the reason they're making mistakes is that Binky is going too quickly and using words they don't understand. Binky is surprised to hear this, as he thought everybody knew the names and the moves. Molly tells him it might be easy for him, but it's new to D.W and the rest of them. Rattles and Molly want Binky to do things even slower so they don't mess up and courage them. Binky then admits the blame for being a lousy dance teacher and leaves.

Back at the Reads' house, Binky then shows D.W. dancing moves in her and Kate's room like he tried earlier. D.W. then applauds to him and then walks up to him. Back on the playground, Binky starts playing some exciting music and teaches Rattles and Molly some more dance moves. Rattles takes an attempt, but then falls down, but he thumbs up his performance. Back at the Reads' house, Binky starts playing with D.W.'s toy unicorns, and she applauds. Outside, they dance together. Out by the trees, Binky then leads Rattles and Molly going across a dirt footpath doing dance moves. Then they walk across a see-saw.

At the Reads' house, D.W. dances in circles, but Binky suggests that D.W. should stop trying to make her eyes dizzy. Then Binky spins on the living room rug, causing it to twirl, and then he falls down, having twisted his ankle. D.W. warns him that the project is the next day.

On the day of the project, it's all being presented in the Lakewood Elementary School Auditorium. The Tibble twins who play the monster trucks bump into their partners, Arthur and Buster. The Tibble twins then get up out of their monster truck costume and bow to the entire crowd. Arthur and Buster feel the pain from what happened in their project and leave. Binky, who has his foot on a brace tells D.W. who is dressed for the concert to remember what they practiced, and hopes she'll do fine. Binky starts playing the music, and D.W. goes up in the spotlight and dances. Rattles and Molly join in with D.W.

After the concert, Mr. Ratburn congratulates Binky and Rattles. Then Binky hands Rattles and Molly their black belts back. And then Binky hands D.W. a pair of his old ballet slippers as a present. D.W. thanks him, but admits they're too large for her. Binky suggests that she'll grow into them. As Binky leaves, D.W. tries on the slippers, but starts losing her balance.

Major

 * Binky Barnes
 * D.W. Read

Minor

 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Alan Powers
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Rattles
 * Molly MacDonald

Cameo

 * Francine Frensky
 * George Lundgren
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * Miss Tingley
 * Mr. Marco
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * Mary
 * Amanda Holser
 * Edwin
 * Liam
 * Sarah
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 13)
 * Kenny
 * Alex
 * Ms. Krasny
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * Maria Pappas
 * Miss Morgan
 * Fern Walters
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Crusher
 * Thora Read
 * Ed Crosswire
 * Millicent Crosswire
 * Mrs. Tibble
 * Neil Lundgren
 * Mrs. Barnes
 * Jane Read
 * David Read

Trivia

 * This is one of the very few segments where Rattles can be occasionally seen without his baseball cap.
 * At the end of the episode, what Binky told D.W. was a reference to the Arthur opening theme song.
 * When Buster asks why is D.W. here, an exact clone of George, wearing a green shirt, can be seen eating lunch in the background.

Cultural references

 * Gene Kelpie is a parody of Gene Kelly, a famous dancer.
 * The title of the episode may be referencing ABBA's "Dancing Queen" song and from the musical and the movie of "Mamma Mia!"
 * Thunderdance is a parody of Riverdance, which was introduced as the interval act during the in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

Errors

 * In Mr. Ratburn's class after all of the third graders and preschoolers are partnered up, one group of four desks has three third graders and one preschooler, when in reality each group should have had two third graders and two preschoolers.

Episode connections

 * D.W. explaining about Arthur having nightmares about his underwear is a reference to "Arthur's Underwear" from Season 2. She takes out a pair of boxer shorts with rabbits on them and then the transition sequence shows two pairs of underwear sliding down: sky blue boxer shorts with rabbits (like D.W. pulled out of the bag) and white briefs with smiley faces. Arthur's first pair of underwear that was shown in the series was a pair of red Bionic Bunny underwear from Arthur Goes to Camp from Season 1, and then Arthur was shown to wear plain white briefs in Arthur's Underwear.
 * While D.W. was practicing dancing from Binky, she wore the same gymnastics suit from "D.W. Flips."
 * The classical music that was being played for D.W. to dance to is the same tune from "The Chips are Down" during ballet performances.

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