BLACKPOOL – Blackpool Tower Ballroom has become a high-profile on-screen setting in Netflix Japanese romantic drama 10Dance, which used the venue as a key filming location and places the Lancashire destination directly inside the film’s narrative.
Released in late 2025, 10Dance has been streamed more than 5 million times, and is currently ranked second in the Japanese charts and fifth in the non-English global charts.
The film is directed by Keishi Ōtomo and is based on Satoh Inoue’s manga. It follows two rival dancers who train each other across ballroom and Latin disciplines, a premise that places formal dance spaces and competition-adjacent environments at the center of the production’s visual identity.
For Blackpool, the placement is more than a scenic backdrop. Location-heavy films and series operate as international calling cards for cities and venues, aligning tourism agencies, municipal stakeholders, and production teams behind a shared objective: make a real place read clearly on screen, and ensure crews can work efficiently inside it.
A story built around Blackpool’s recognisable sites
In 10Dance, the dancers visit Blackpool and the film showcases multiple local locations and attractions, including the Blackpool Tower, the Imperial Hotel, Tower Festival Headland, and the Illuminations[2]. Those choices place the narrative inside one of the UK’s best-known leisure resorts rather than using a generic stand-in for “seaside Britain”.
That multi-site approach is significant for a destination-facing production because it does not rely on a single establishing shot to “stamp” the setting. Instead, it uses a run of recognisable exterior and interior environments that collectively confirm place, scale, and movement-an approach that can require coordination across private venues and public spaces, local highways and events teams, and, where necessary, traffic and crowd-management planning by the local authority.
The Tower Ballroom itself is used for its ornate architecture and historic dance floor, which the production leveraged as a backdrop aligned with the story’s focus on ballroom and Latin disciplines[3]. The venue’s visual design and heritage cues are part of why it has remained attractive to filmmakers and broadcasters working on dance-driven scenes that benefit from instantly legible grandeur.
How major streaming releases turn venues into production assets
For global streamers, the commercial logic behind location selection is typically operational as well as creative: crews need a controllable working environment, a venue that can handle the practicalities of filming, and a setting that communicates production value on screen without extensive physical builds.
In that context, destination venues can function like ready-made sets-particularly when a production’s subject matter is closely linked to the space. Dance stories, in particular, depend on rooms that can hold wide choreography, audience sightlines, and the lighting needed to capture full-body movement without flattening performance.
When a film travels internationally within its story world, recognisable locations can also add clarity for audiences watching across markets and languages. In a platform environment where viewers browse by thumbnail and logline, the on-screen “sense of place” is part of what differentiates one title from another, especially in the non-English film sector where Netflix has increasingly programmed releases for cross-border discovery.
Behind the scenes, those choices are shaped by the UK’s wider production regime, including Creative Sector Tax Reliefs and dedicated support for international shoots set out in guidance from the British Film Commission. Together with local film offices, that framework is designed to make it easier for overseas titles such as 10Dance to base complex location work in places like Blackpool while complying with immigration, safety, and permitting rules.
Local facilitation and the role of tourism-led production support
Kate Shane MBE, Managing Director of Blackpool Tourism Limited, positioned the 10Dance shoot as part of a broader effort to bring international crews into the resort and to support filming across multiple sites.
“The Blackpool Tower Ballroom is a jewel in our crown, and productions like 10Dance showcase its magic to audiences worldwide. We are proud to attract crews from across the globe who recognise the Ballroom’s unique atmosphere and history.
“We were delighted to welcome the cast and crew at the start of 2025 and facilitate filming locations across the resort. Blackpool offers so many opportunities for production companies, and we look forward to welcoming many more in 2026.”
Shane’s reference to facilitating “filming locations across the resort” underscores how destination shoots are often structured: a production may base itself around one primary venue while moving between additional sites to build narrative variety and establish a complete sense of place.
The operational requirements can include scheduling access around public opening times, controlling sound and footfall, and aligning venue operations with production needs-work that typically falls across location management teams and local partners. For landmark properties, the trade-off is clear: filming can bring global visibility, but it also requires careful governance of heritage spaces and visitor-facing businesses, particularly where buildings carry protected status under the UK’s listed-heritage regime.
A filming track record that keeps the Ballroom in circulation
Blackpool Tower Ballroom’s latest screen credit arrives on top of an established history as a production location. The venue has previously hosted international productions including Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Camila Cabello’s Cinderella, and BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing[1].
That pattern matters in an industry sense because repeat selection often reflects a venue’s practical suitability as much as its aesthetics: physical dimensions, controllable lighting, crew access, and institutional experience in working with film and television schedules.
For rights holders and venue operators, a proven record can also reduce friction on future deals by establishing internal playbooks for production requests, from location agreements through to day-of operational protocols. For Blackpool’s civic leaders and tourism bodies, those repeat appearances consolidate the Ballroom’s position not only as a cultural asset but as a recurring piece of soft power in the competition for visitors, spending, and future screen projects.
10Dance is streaming now on Netflix.
