The Real Origin of 'The Running Man Dance:' 'It's a Just Jersey Club Thing'
"The Running Man Dance" which recently made its way to "Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show," existed long before the challenge became viral.
Viewers recently saw the viral dance on the hit late night show when Jimmy Fallon received a fan question regarding the dance. The question read "Hey Jimmy, have you seen those videos of basketball players doing 'The Running Man Challenge' where a song starts playing then someone pops out and starts doing 'The Running Man Dance?' You should do that one your show."
Fallon then proceeded to a red door with a question mark and closed the door. When he and Carmelo Anthony came back out, the music played as they danced the viral dance.
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Over the past several weeks, the internet has been going crazy about the viral dance called "The Running Man Challenge." The viral dance was made popular by two basketball dancers from the University of Maryland, Jaylen Brantley and Jared Nickens.
It consisted jogging movements danced over the Ghost Town DJ's hit "My Boo." The hype spread to different athletes from NFL and NBA. After that, it reached the mainstream public, with even firefighters and policemen from around the world sharing their variation of the dance. It was stated that the ones who originated the challenge were just two high school kids named Kevin Vincent and Jeremiah Hall.
The two recently made an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show where they explained how they started the challenge. They explained that the two of them were just bored in their finance class. Then, they starting singing "My Boo" then made up the dance steps on the spot.
However, The Fader reported that the dance was already existing before the two high school kids debuted their viral video. It was stated that it was part of the New Jersey club culture. Because of this, several people from the club scene were angered when the two kids took credit for the dance step.
A producer from the New Jersey club scene, named Jayhood, stated, "[They] made the challenge, but not the dance. You can't say you made the dance. It's a just Jersey club thing. We just want to make sure that everyone knows it came from the scene here."
In addition, the dance move is said to be an integral part of the club scene in that area. Local dance group cTe revealed, "If you're a Jersey club dancer, you need the Running Man to start off your circle. If you don't have that down pat, you're not a real Jersey club dancer."
