‘Fresh Prince’ star Alfonso Ribeiro can’t register famed ‘Carlton Dance,’ US Copyright Office says
The decision came to light this week in California federal court, where the actor is suing video game makers Take-Two Interactive and Epic Games for including versions of the Carlton Dance in their popular NBA 2K and Fortnight games.
Actor Alfonso Ribeiro’s lasting legacy is his so-called “Carlton Dance” thanks to a 1991 episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but despite that enduring association, the U.S. Copyright Office has refused to allow the former star to register the move as his own.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Office’s Performing Arts Division indicated in a correspondence last month that Ribeiro’s registration of the dance has been refused because it is a “simple dance routine” that doesn’t meet the definition of “choreographic work” required to successfully complete the process. The document came to light this week in California federal court, where the actor is suing video game makers Take-Two Interactive and Epic Games for including versions of the Carlton Dance in their popular NBA 2K and Fortnight games.
“The dancer sways their hips as they step from side to side, while swinging their arms in an exaggerated manner,” supervisory registration specialist Saskia Florence wrote. “In the second dance step, the dancer takes two steps to each side while opening and closing their legs and their arms in unison. In the final step, the dancer’s feet are still and they lower one hand from above their head to the middle of their chest while fluttering their fingers. The combination of these three dance steps is a simple routine that is not registrable as a choreographic work.”
For the uninitiated, here is what Florence means:
Additionally, because Ribeiro submitted a video of him performing the dance on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars for the registration process, the Office also questioned in another correspondence whether he came up with it in the first place. On DWTS, Ribeiro was partnered with professional dancer Witney Carson, and because “most of the professional dancers” on the show “create the choreography for their partner,” the Office wondered if his “application names the correct author or authors” for the Carlton Dance.
In a motion to dismiss Ribeiro’s case against his client, Take-Two Interactive, attorney Dale Cendali questioned whether Ribeiro actually owns the Carlton Dance, if it can be protected by registration at all. As Caendali noted in a dismissal brief, the dance did first appear on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1991, and NBC owns the copyright for that episode. As a result, an official wrote, Ribeiro “has not plausibly alleged ownership of a valid copyright.”
While he may have popularized the Carlton Dance, Ribeiro has previously admitted that he took serious inspiration for it from a couple of unlikely sources: Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Murphy. As Ribeiro told TMZ back in 2012, he “stole” the moves from Courteney Cox’s appearance in Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” music video, and crossed them with Eddie Murphy’s famous bit from 1987’s Raw about white people’s inability to dance.
For what it’s worth, all three are pretty similar:
Ribeiro’s lawyer, David Hecht, later downplayed his client’s comments, telling TMZ that Ribeiro “used the word ‘stole’ in jest.”
“In his words, it was Ribeiro’s (a professional dancer’s) interpretation of what a white person looks like when they dance,” Hecht said. “That describes a copyrightable choreographic work.”