Here's Everything You Need To Know About The Video Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dancing

For starters, it was all based on a meme back in the day.

America was left in a state of shock this week after discovering that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once danced in college.

Footage of the New York congresswoman dancing as a student at Boston University was posted on Twitter in an effort to discredit her a day before she was sworn in.

...High School video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- Congratulations New York!

"Here is America's favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is," one person tweeted.

At 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

It massively backfired when people concluded that the video was actually pretty fabulous.

Well, @AOC is officially done. She’ll never recover from the world seeing her... (watches video) ...dancing adorably and having fun with her friends in high school? https://t.co/0zENCzBinA

I want Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to give me dance lessons. @AOC

Hahaha she’s fantastic . The more politicians we have like @AOC the sooner we’ll all be dancing. This is a real person, in touch with her roots. She has a perspective, a work ethic & a humanity based philosophy that seeks the best outcome for the most people.. More power to her. https://t.co/NEKPAm14Cm

Even the French indie band Phoenix, whose song "Lisztomania" plays in the original video, took to Twitter to congratulate the new congresswoman.

@AOC , Congratulations on being the youngest woman ever being elected to Congress! Tendrement, Phoenix https://t.co/iJSOSmmCnG @MollyRingwald 💘

The video was part of a spate of copycat films made about a decade ago after a mashup of the Breakfast Club dance scene and Phoenix's 2009 song "Lisztomania" went viral.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

A group of dancers in Brooklyn made a live-action version at the time, which also took off.

Shortly after that went viral, a group of Brooklyn let's-face-it hipsters did a shot for shot remake of the mash-up, which was pretty exciting at the time! https://t.co/SWJ3bOJ6dy

There is a long history behind it. The video sparked a lawsuit after Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig used clips of it in a lecture that was posted on YouTube.

A Twitter user who claims to be the maker of the original mashup video said this week that her account had been disabled by the platform and shared a link to the video on YouTube.

In any case, that's where the Boston University video comes in.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Now a Twitter visionary has taken it upon themselves to create a slew of mashups of the Ocasio-Cortez video to tons of different tunes...and the results are amazing.

There's OutKast.

Wham!

The Killers.

There is even Psy.

Needless to say, people loved it.

@aoc_dances @leahmcelrath It's so inconceivable to me that surfaced as an attack on her. I'm in love! ❤️

@aoc_dances @nycsouthpaw That her high school dancing videos were recorded in HD by default automatically makes her a million times cooler than us older folks will ever be.

Ocasio-Cortez was having fun with the whole thing Friday, showing off her moves in a tweet, saying, "I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous."

I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous. Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too! 💃🏽 Have a great weekend everyone :)

Ocasio-Cortez responded to the video, according to the Hill reporter Olivia Beavers, saying, "It is unsurprising to me that Republicans would think having fun should be disqualifying or illegal."

She also said that she is happy to "have a reputation for dancing well."

BuzzFeed News has reached Ocasio-Cortez for comment.

Topics in this article

Skip to footer