--- title: Alfonso Ribeiro Explains Fresh Prince of Bel Air Carlton Dance description: We have Courteney Cox, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Murphy to thank canonical: https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-20T16:39:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:39.838Z og:title: Here's the Origin Story of the Carlton Dance from 'Fresh Prince' og:description: We have Courteney Cox, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Murphy to thank og:url: https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt536112429efde605/6988603d2dce0103039e52dd/gettyimages-140621933.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's the Origin Story of the Carlton Dance from 'Fresh Prince' twitter:description: We have Courteney Cox, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Murphy to thank twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt536112429efde605/6988603d2dce0103039e52dd/gettyimages-140621933.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the Origin Story of the Iconic Carlton Dance From _Fresh Prince_ ## Video: 5 Elements of A Viral Video [Watch (HLS stream): 5 Elements of A Viral Video](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vgQtqA8c.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2015-06-22. 5 Elements of A Viral Video_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Aug 20, 2015 4:39 PM UTC  Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirNBC/Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Aug 20, 2015 4:39 PM UTC _The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air_ is one of the greatest sitcoms of our time, largely because it introduced us to the cultural phenomenon known as[ the “Carlton Dance.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS1cLOIxsQ8) And now, finally, we know where this iconic jig came from. Actor Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks, [told _Variety_ ](http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-alfonso-ribeiro-carlton-dance-1201570543/)that the dance was mostly improvised. It was created because the script simply read, “Carlton dances.” Ribeiro took it from there. “It was never even intended to be funny; it was just that he was dancing,” Ribeiro said. “The dance is ultimately Courteney Cox in the Bruce Springsteen video ‘[Dancing in the Dark](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129kuDCQtHs);’ that’s the basis. Or in Eddie Murphy’s ‘Delirious’ video, [The White Man Dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsyYuFv5ltc) as he called it. And I said, ‘That is the corniest dance on the planet that I know of, so why don’t I do that?'” Soon enough, the Carlton Dance became a legend. Ribeiro revived it on a recent season of _Dancing With the Stars_, which he obviously ended up winning: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/"},"headline":"Here's the Origin Story of the Iconic Carlton Dance From Fresh Prince","datePublished":"2015-08-20T16:39:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:39.838Z","description":"We have Courteney Cox, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Murphy to thank","url":"https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt536112429efde605/6988603d2dce0103039e52dd/gettyimages-140621933.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt536112429efde605/6988603d2dce0103039e52dd/gettyimages-140621933.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air","caption":"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air","creditText":"NBC/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/","name":"Here's the Origin Story of the Iconic Carlton Dance From Fresh Prince"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"5 Elements of A Viral Video","description":"5 Elements of A Viral Video","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vgQtqA8c/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-22T13:42:30.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vgQtqA8c.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/","duration":"PT1M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4004806/alfonso-ribeiro-explains-carlton-dance/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```