In late 2019, a new dance craze took the social media app TikTok by storm. Called the “Renegade,” it quickly became one of the most popular and widely-attempted dances on the platform. The Renegade is characterized by its funky, rhythmic arm movements and sly facial expressions. Part of what made it so popular was its level of difficulty – the quick hand motions required precise timing and coordination to get right.
The Renegade was created in September 2019 by 14-year-old Atlanta-native Jalaiah Harmon, who posted the original dance on her TikTok account (1). However, it did not go viral until later that year when well-known TikTok users like Charli D’Amelio posted their own versions. Soon the Renegade flooded TikTok feeds as both amateur and famous users alike tried to nail the complicated moves.
Within a few months, the Renegade had become TikTok’s most viral dance of the moment. Everyone from teens to celebrities were posting their Renegade attempts, with the official dance hashtag #renegade garnering over 1.7 billion views. For a period in early 2020, it was almost impossible to scroll through TikTok without encountering the Renegade in some form.
The Origins of the Renegade Dance
The Renegade dance craze originated with 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon from Atlanta, Georgia. In September 2019, Jalaiah came up with the dance moves while hanging out with friends and listening to the song “Lottery” by rapper K Camp. She practiced the choreography in her bedroom and later posted a video of herself dancing to the song on the social media platform Funimate in October 2019 (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/the-original-renegade.html).
Jalaiah’s original video helped popularize the dance moves that became known as the Renegade. The main moves involve pointing to the screen, crossing arms, swinging hips side to side, and moving hands above the head. Jalaiah’s video gained traction as users on TikTok began copying her dance and posting their own versions.
How the Renegade Dance Spread
The Renegade dance quickly exploded in popularity in late 2019 and early 2020 thanks in large part to TikTok star Charli D’Amelio. Though Jalaiah Harmon originally choreographed the dance in September 2019, it did not go massively viral right away. The dance started spreading more in October 2019 when Harmon and other dancers filmed themselves performing it (1).
Then in November 2019, Charli D’Amelio filmed herself doing the dance to the song “Lottery” by K CAMP, sparking a viral craze. D’Amelio, who was already one of the most popular personalities on TikTok at the time, exposed the dance to her millions of followers (1). Her video doing the Renegade dance garnered over 15 million likes, causing many other TikTok users to start creating their own versions. From November 2019 to January 2020, thousands of TikTok users copied the dance moves in recordings set to the same song.
Within a matter of weeks, the Renegade went from a dance choreographed by a 14-year-old in her bedroom to one of the biggest viral challenges on TikTok, thanks in large part to Charli D’Amelio. As the most followed person on TikTok in early 2020, D’Amelio’s recreation helped launch the Renegade into mainstream pop culture.
(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/the-original-renegade.html
The Signature Moves of the Renegade
The Renegade dance is known for its distinct choreography that involves moving your arms and hands in different motions. The main moves of the dance are:
Hitting the woah – This is done by bringing your left arm down in front of you and bending your right arm up. This move is done at the start of the dance.1
Clapping – After hitting the woah, you clap your hands together.
Pointing – With bent arms, point your right finger up and left finger down, then switch.
Crisscrossing arms – Straighten your arms and crisscross them back and forth.
Going up the wall – Move your arms up in a fluid wave motion.
Boxing – Alternate punching with your right and left fists.
Shooting – With your right arm extended, bring your left hand over to mime shooting a gun.
Throwing the ball – Mime throwing a ball up with both hands.
The entire dance sequence flows smoothly between these signature choreography moves.1 The specific timing and transitions between the moves are what gives the Renegade its distinct style.
Musical Inspiration
The Renegade dance is closely tied to the song “Lottery (Renegade)” by American rapper K Camp. Released in 2019, this uptempo track features a catchy beat and repetitive lyrics about winning the lottery and gaining wealth. While the song did not make major waves upon its initial release, it exploded in popularity at the same time as the Renegade dance craze took off on TikTok in early 2020.
The connection between “Lottery (Renegade)” and the viral dance trend is undeniable. TikTok creators typically perform the Renegade choreography over the instrumental portion of the song, or alongside K Camp’s lyrics. In many ways, the song and dance complement and play off each other – the bouncy hip-hop beat matches the moves, and certain dance motions sync up with the song’s lyrics. This interplay helped fuel both the track and the dance to meteoric heights.
As the Renegade took TikTok by storm in early 2020, so did “Lottery (Renegade).” The song rapidly rose on music charts and streaming platforms, introducing many listeners to K Camp’s music for the first time. Despite being over a year old, “Lottery” became the rapper’s biggest hit by far. Clearly, the Renegade dance catapulted the song into the mainstream, demonstrating the power of TikTok trends to transform songs into viral sensations. For a brief period in early 2020, it was impossible to escape “Lottery (Renegade)” and its accompanying dance challenge.
Recreations and Variations
One of the appeals of the Renegade dance is how easily people can put their own creative spins on it. While the dance has a set sequence of moves, TikTok users have come up with countless variations that offer something new.
Some examples of popular Renegade variations include:
- Adding difficult tricks like splits or kicks into certain moves
- Changing up the arm movements to be more energetic or sassy
- Doing the moves in reverse order
- Adding props like bags, pom poms, or earbuds
- Performing it as a duet or group dance
Dancers on TikTok are constantly innovating and challenging each other to come up with even more creative Renegade iterations. These recreations showcase how a simple dance sequence can inspire endless interpretations when people put their personal flair on it.
As evidence of the Renegade’s remix potential, the hashtag #renegadevariations has over 230 million views on TikTok. The evolutions of the dance speak to the collaborative, crowd-sourced culture of TikTok and social media.
Celebrity Renegade Attempts
As the Renegade dance exploded in popularity on TikTok, many celebrities jumped on the trend and tried their hand at the viral moves. Compilations of celebrities attempting the Renegade dance began surfacing across YouTube and TikTok.
Some of the earliest celebrity Renegade attempts came from Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae, two of TikTok’s biggest stars. Their Renegade dances garnered millions of likes on the platform (Original ‘Renegade’ Jalaiah Dances with tWitch! – YouTube). Other celebrities like Lizzo, Millie Bobby Brown, and James Charles all filmed themselves dancing to the trending track.
However, when Kourtney Kardashian posted her Renegade dance on TikTok in March 2020, it kickstarted a wave of celebrities participating in the challenge. Compilations appeared featuring attempts by major stars like Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, and Justin Bieber. Even Michelle Obama filmed a Renegade dance to promote voter registration in the 2020 election.
Some celebrities faced backlash for posting Renegade dances without crediting Jalaiah Harmon, the original creator. But the wide range of celebrity attempts demonstrated the cultural impact and popularity of Jalaiah’s dance.
Controversies and Issues
The Renegade dance sparked controversy over arguments about who originally created the dance. While Jalaiah Harmon is credited with coming up with the dance in September 2019, other TikTok users gained fame performing it months later without crediting Harmon. For example, TikTok superstar Charli D’Amelio posted videos doing the dance in November 2019 without mentioning Harmon as the creator (NY Times). This led to accusations of stealing dances and appropriating content.
The controversy highlighted ongoing issues in the dance community around proper crediting of choreography. Some argue that dances should be viewed as collaborative, evolving creations rather than the work of a single choreographer. Others insist that original creators like Harmon deserve acknowledgement and compensation when their dances go viral. The Renegade dance opened up debates about intellectual property and ownership in the era of social media dance trends.
Impact on Culture
The Renegade dance had a significant cultural impact, inspiring countless memes, trends, and other viral dances on TikTok. As one of the platform’s first mainstream viral dances, the Renegade demonstrated TikTok’s potential as a launchpad for challenges, trends, and choreography (Flytant). For many young users, learning and performing the Renegade dance became a rite of passage when joining TikTok (Brades). The dance’s continued popularity cemented TikTok as a hub for viral dances and choreography, paving the way for future dance crazes like the Milly Rock, Savage, and many more.
Beyond TikTok, the Renegade inspired tributes, parodies, and remixes across social media and pop culture, gaining recognition through memes and recreations on YouTube, Instagram and other platforms. Figures ranging from Lizzo to Jimmy Fallon attempted their own versions in videos that went viral. The dance challenged stereotypes by spotlighting Jalaiah Harmon, a young Black creator, as the originator of a mainstream sensation (Bromwich). As a cultural touchpoint, the Renegade demonstrated the power and creativity of Gen Z users in driving viral trends online.
The Legacy of the Renegade
The Renegade has had a lasting influence as one of the most iconic dances on TikTok. It helped pioneer the platform’s popularity for dance challenges and trends. According to Harmon in OUP Academic, “Harmon’s story, it seemed, followed a familiar legacy: as dance scholar Anthea Kraut acknowledges, the history of dance in the United States is a history of appropriating and commercializing dances and movement originally created in Black communities.”
While controversy surrounded some of the appropriation aspects, the Renegade’s catchy moves to Doja Cat’s ‘Lottery’ made it indisputably one of TikTok’s first viral memes. As noted in ByLeighGreen’s Medium article, “What we refuse to acknowledge is how that legacy of exploitation is woven inextricably into the fabric of our modern society. It is so embedded that it can allow a white teenager to achieve wealth and notoriety doing a dance move for move dance created by a Black teenager without crediting the originator.”
Regardless of its origins, the Renegade gave birth to TikTok dance challenges as we know them today. Its simple but distinct moves created a formula that many others would try to replicate in their quest for TikTok fame. Despite any controversies about its creation, the Renegade cemented itself as one of the most iconic TikTok dances of all time.
