Jennifer Lopez Dances Through the History of Music Videos with Jimmy Fallon

Jennifer Lopez, who is currently in the midst of a promotional tour for the already wildly-critically praised Hustlers (OSCAR FOR JLO!) stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night in New York. And what an appearance it was.

For years, Fallon has produced a series of viral videos charting the evolution of various dance styles (“The Evolution of Dad Dancing,” etc.). For his latest offering, Fallon and Lopez boogied their way through the “History of Music Video Dancing.” Dressed in matching jeans and flannels, Lopez and Fallon tried on moves from NSYNC‘s “Bye Bye Bye,” Sia‘s “Chandelier,” Beyonce‘s “Single Ladies,” Miley Cyrus‘s “Wrecking Ball,” and JLo’s arguably greatest hit, “Waiting for Tonight.” The whole thing is a delight.

In the interview portion of the program, Lopez broke down how she prepared for her role in Hustlers as Ramona, a stripper who starts scamming Wall Street guys after the 2008 recession. Her character first appears in a scene in which she strips to Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” the first time the artist has authorized the song for use in a film.

“I didn’t know how to pole dance,” Lopez explained. “It’s like acrobats, it’s like learning gymnastics but with a pole. It was super hard.”

And so she called on famous former stripper Cardi B (who has a small role in the film) for help.

“I called Cardi B,” Lopez said. “I was like ‘You have to be in this movie, you know this world, teach us.’ But as I’m learning how to pole dance and I said, ‘It is really hard,’ and she goes, ‘Oh yeah, it took me years, years to master, but now I’m great at it.’”

But Cardi didn’t get to dance as much in the movie as she would have liked. “You know what?,” she said at a recent press junket. “I was really mad because let me tell you something–when I did the movie, I just got my titties done and I got lipo, right? So I was like, ‘This is my moment to shine, and I can’t shine because I can’t climb!’ So I was mad. I was like, ‘God damn it!'”