# Renegade Dance > Renegade Dance is a 2019 viral TikTok choreography by 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon to K Camp's "Lottery," which exposed the persistent problem of uncredited Black creators. The Renegade is a viral TikTok dance choreographed by 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon to K Camp's song "Lottery" in September 2019. The dance became one of the biggest TikTok trends of late 2019 and early 2020, but sparked a major conversation about creator credit after Charli D'Amelio and other influencers popularized it without acknowledging Harmon[3]. The controversy made Harmon a symbol of Black creators being overlooked on social media platforms. ## Origin On September 25, 2019, Jalaiah Harmon, a 14-year-old dancer from Fayetteville, Georgia, came home from school and asked her Instagram friend Kaliyah Davis, 12, to collaborate on a new dance[3]. Harmon studied at Sky Dance Academy and trained in hip-hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz, tumbling, and tap[4]. She listened to the beats in K Camp's "Lottery" and choreographed a difficult sequence to the chorus, weaving in existing viral moves like the Wave and the Woah[5]. Harmon filmed herself performing the routine and posted it first to Funimate, then to her 20,000+ Instagram followers, with a side-by-side shot of her and Davis performing it together[3]. The Instagram post racked up about 13,000 views, and people started replicating it immediately[5]. - **Platform:** Instagram (original post), TikTok (viral spread) - **Creator:** Jalaiah Harmon (choreographer), Kaliyah Davis (collaborator), @global.jones (brought dance to TikTok) - **Date:** 2019 ## Overview The Renegade is a fast-paced dance routine set to the chorus of K Camp's 2019 single "Lottery," specifically the section where the word "renegade" repeats[1]. The choreography is notably complex by TikTok dance standards, incorporating over 15 distinct steps including the Woah, the Wave, and the Dab[2]. The difficulty is part of what made it so appealing: pulling off the full sequence cleanly was a flex. At its peak, the Renegade was everywhere. Celebrities like Lizzo, Kourtney Kardashian, David Dobrik, and members of K-pop group Stray Kids all filmed themselves attempting it[3]. The dance racked up 29.7 million users attempting the choreography on TikTok[4]. But the story of the Renegade is as much about who gets credit for viral content as it is about the dance itself. ## How It Spread On October 5, 2019, a TikTok user named @global.jones adapted the dance for TikTok, changing up some of the moves at the end[2]. That video picked up around 4,300 likes in three months. But the real explosion came on October 20, when Charli D'Amelio performed the Renegade on her TikTok account[2]. D'Amelio's version pulled in over 1.4 million likes in two months, and the dance took off across the platform. By November, the Renegade was inescapable. On November 17, TikToker @bigshwangnick posted a tutorial that got over 579,800 likes in a month[2]. The #renegade hashtag flooded the app with millions of videos. Celebrities jumped in: Bella Thorne posted her attempt, and Charli D'Amelio was nicknamed the "C.E.O." of the Renegade for popularizing it[1]. But none of them credited Jalaiah Harmon. On November 22, Harmon uploaded a video to TikTok calling out the lack of credit, earning over 579,800 likes[2]. She also set up a TikTok video of herself in front of a green screen, Googling "who created the Renegade dance?" to set the record straight[3]. She hopped into the comments of influencer videos asking them to tag her, but was mostly ignored or ridiculed[3]. ## How to Use The Renegade is performed to the chorus of K Camp's "Lottery," specifically the section repeating the word "renegade." The full choreography involves over 15 steps and is one of the trickier TikTok dances to master[2]. The typical approach: 1. Film yourself (or a group) performing the dance to the "Lottery" chorus 2. The choreography incorporates moves like the Woah, the Wave, and the Dab in rapid succession 3. Speed and precision are what separate a good Renegade from a sloppy one 4. Post with the #renegade hashtag ## Cultural Impact The Renegade's biggest impact wasn't the dance itself but the conversation it sparked about creator credit on social media. The New York Times profile of Jalaiah Harmon brought mainstream attention to the pattern of Black creators having their work appropriated without credit on platforms like TikTok[5]. Following the controversy, Harmon was invited to perform at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago[4]. The case also pushed TikTok to think more seriously about attribution tools and how dances spread on the platform. K Camp's "Lottery" got a massive streaming boost from the trend. The Renegade was part of a wave of TikTok dances in 2019-2020 that demonstrated the app's power to push songs onto charts, alongside trends like the "Say So" dance for Doja Cat and the "Old Town Road" craze for Lil Nas X[1]. The story also fed into wider debates about how social media platforms benefit from user-generated content while the original creators, particularly young Black artists, often see none of the financial upside[4]. ## Fun Facts - Harmon choreographed the Renegade on the same day she came home from school, collaborating over Instagram with 12-year-old Kaliyah Davis who lived elsewhere[3]. - The Renegade incorporates moves from other viral dances (the Woah, the Wave, the Dab), making it a kind of greatest-hits mashup of TikTok choreo[2]. - Charli D'Amelio was nicknamed the "C.E.O. of the Renegade" despite not creating it, a title that became ironic once Harmon's story came to light[3]. - K Camp, the rapper behind "Lottery," was a relatively low-profile Atlanta artist before the Renegade blew his song up on TikTok[1]. - Harmon studied six different dance disciplines at Sky Dance Academy: hip-hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz, tumbling, and tap[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the Renegade dance? The Renegade is a viral dance choreographed to the chorus of K Camp's song "Lottery." It involves over 15 steps including the Woah, the Wave, and the Dab, and became one of TikTok's biggest dance trends in late 2019 and early 2020[2]. ### Where did the Renegade come from? The Renegade was created by Jalaiah Harmon, a 14-year-old dancer from Fayetteville, Georgia, who posted it to Instagram on September 25, 2019[3]. It was brought to TikTok by user @global.jones on October 5, 2019[2]. ### What does the Renegade mean? The dance is named after the repeated word "renegade" in the chorus of K Camp's "Lottery." The Renegade itself doesn't carry a specific meaning beyond being a dance challenge tied to that song[1]. ### How do you use the Renegade? Film yourself performing the choreography to the "Lottery" chorus and post it with the #renegade hashtag. Slowed-down tutorial videos were widely available to help people learn the complex moves[1]. ### Is the Renegade still popular? The Renegade peaked in late 2019 through early 2020. While the specific dance trend has faded, its cultural impact on discussions about creator credit and platform attribution persists[5]. ### Who really created the Renegade? Jalaiah Harmon, a 14-year-old from the Atlanta suburbs, created the Renegade on September 25, 2019, with collaboration from her friend Kaliyah Davis[3]. She was not credited until a New York Times article brought her story to mainstream attention in February 2020[5]. ### Why was the Renegade controversial? Charli D'Amelio and other white TikTok influencers popularized the dance without crediting Harmon, a young Black creator. This sparked a larger debate about cultural appropriation and the erasure of Black creators on social media platforms[4]. ### What is a Dubsmasher? Dubsmashers are dancers who use the Dubsmash app and similar short-form video apps to create and share choreography. Many viral TikTok dances, including the Renegade, originated in the Dubsmash community before being adopted on TikTok without credit[3]. ### Did Charli D'Amelio create the Renegade? No. D'Amelio performed the Renegade on October 20, 2019, and was nicknamed its "C.E.O." for popularizing it, but the dance was created by Jalaiah Harmon nearly a month earlier[2][3]. ### What happened to Jalaiah Harmon after the controversy? After the New York Times profiled her in February 2020, Harmon gained recognition and was invited to perform at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago[4]. ## References 1. [10 TikTok Dance Tutorials That'll Make You Look Like A Pro]() 2. [SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds]() 3. [10 TikTok Dance Tutorials That'll Make You Look Like A Pro]() 4. [Renegade Dance - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Rickrolling]() 6. [Meet the Original Renegade Dance Creator: Jalaiah Harmon - Grandfather Clocks Blog]() 7. [TikTok's Renegade dance : An internet success across the United States]() 8. [Meet the 14-Year-Old Dancer Who Invented The Renegade - Longreads]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/renegade-dance Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library