EDITOR'S NOTE
Dance Dance Resolution
by Brandi Scardilli
“Now this is a story all about how / My life got flipped, turned upside down. …” If you’re of a certain age, you (still) know all of the words to the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This ’90s sitcom introduced megastar Will Smith to the world, and the Smith family has been killing it lately: Jada has taken over Facebook Watch with her raw and real Red Table Talk; Will has made an event out of turning 50 and will soon bring his undeniable charm to another ’90s classic, Aladdin; and Jaden is working to solve the Flint, Mich., water crisis with his company, JUST Goods, Inc.
So it’s understandable that Fresh Prince’s cousin Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro), forever in Will’s shadow, would feel the need to protect his own contribution to pop culture history: the Carlton dance. Ribeiro—charming in his own way—doesn’t have the name recognition that Smith does, so it’s up to him to safeguard the dance’s legacy. (Search “Carlton dance DWTS” on YouTube; it’s great.) Anthony Aycock digs into the subject of copyrighting dance moves in “Weird Things People Have Tried to Copyright” (page 13). As this issue went to press, we learned that Ribeiro voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit Aycock writes about, possibly because the U.S. Copyright Office said in February that the dance was not eligible for copyright (for more, see philly.com/news/nation-world/carlton-dance-fortnite-fresh-prince-bel-air-lawsuit-20190307.html and nytimes.com/2019/02/15/arts/dance/carlton-dance.html).
Happy reading!  |
