Updated (after the jump): May 28, 2011 @ 2:30 AM CDT
Season 8 of FOX’s hit dance competition, So You Think You Can Dance, began last Thursday. And just a couple of hours after the Season Premiere aired, controversy hit the show.
Hopefully this controversy warmed up first, cause otherwise it’s going to get a cramp considering how fast this one went.
Deon Lewsa, Jr., and Damon Bellmon, knows as the D-Day Twins, auditioned a comedy dancing routine for the judges, Nigel, Mary, and Lil C. You can see the audition below.
I thought the D-Day Twins’ routine was very funny, though I thought it was lacking on actual dancing in parts. I didn’t agree with the judges sending the guys straight through to Vegas, instead preferring that they have been sent to the Choreography Round so that we could see if they had the ability to dance with other people and in other styles.
As it turns out, sending them through to Vegas at all may cause egg to end up on the face of the show.
You see, it appears that the D-Day Twins copied most, if not all, of their routine, including the song, from a hip-hop duo known as the Les Twins, who, unlike the D-Day Twins, are actually twins. (On a completely unrelated note, the Wikipedia page for the Les Twins says they have 18 brothers and sisters. Yikes!)
The video below is of the Les Twins performing a routine at the 2010 World of Dance. Pay close attention to the first couple of minutes of the dance.
It appears to me that the D-Day Twins performed almost an exact copy of the Les Twins routine, though not as well as the Les Twins did it. And fans of the Les Twins are not happy about this. They have taken to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to call the D-Day Twins out over this.
All three SYTYCD judges ate up the D-Day Twins’ performance. And they don’t seem to know that the routine has been bit (hip-hop speak) from the Les Twins. Whether the D-Day Twins told producers and/or the judges that the routine wasn’t their own isn’t known. If they did, that information never made it to air. And as of 15 minutes ago, Nigel Lythgoe hasn’t addressed the controversy on his Twitter account.
So what, if anything, should happen to the D-Day Twins for this? Should they be immediately disqualified from this season for this? Does it matter that their routine wasn’t their own? If they told the producers and/or judges that the routine wasn’t theirs, should that information have been shared with viewers? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Update: May 28, 2011 @ 2:30 AM CDT
Since my original post, some additional information has come in about this controversy.
1) SYTYCD may have goofed on Deon’s last name. On the show, it was listed as Lewsa. On the boys’ YouTube Channel, it is listed as Lewis.
2) Their name may simply be D-Day, and not D-Day Twins. I thought I heard “Twins” on the show, and all the sites I looked at when writing this story used the word as well. I have been unable to find the entire aired copy of their audition to see if I heard correctly or not.
3) Deon and Damon put out a YouTube video addressing the controversy. In it, the guys say a mention of the Les Twins was edited out, that their routine was much longer but was edited to basically mirror the Les Twins routine, and that they auditioned with a different song playing instead of the one we heard on TV. The video was posted sometime before 2 PM CDT on Friday. I searched for the guys on YouTube when writing this story, but never saw the video. It doesn’t show up when searching their names. You can see the video below.
4) A YouTuber by the name of ForeignerFilms has posted a side-by-side comparisons of the two routines. You can see the video below.
Even if I had seen Deon’s and Damon’s video when writing this blog entry, it wouldn’t have changed the story. That’s because there is still a controversy surrounding D-Day’s audition because we still saw a nearly exact copy of the Les Twins routine. If we take Damon and Deon at their word when they say their audition was much longer than what was aired and contained a lot more material, it is clear that they still had plenty of the Les Twins material in their routine. And that may be the heart of this controversy. Did D-Day bite (bboy slang for steal) material from the Les Twins, or, taken in context with the parts of the audition we haven’t seen, was it simply paying tribute to two boys that D-Day says they are big fans of.
What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Let’s be clear, their name is Deon Lewis and Damon Bellmon and they are called D*Day (not D*Day Twins). During the interview they shouted out Les Twins and stated that they were their inspiration and that their audition is a tribute to the Les Twins. The producers conveniently edited that out of the show. In addition, their dance was not done to the song that aired. they danced to MJ’s “Don’t Let Go Of My Hand”, but due to legality’s the show could not air MJ’s song, so the PRODUCERS edited the song with the song form the Les Twins! Furthur more, before their dance they shouted out to Les Twins and gave them credit for some of the choro in the dance… their dance started with some of the Les Twins choro however, was not an exact replica, AND their dance was much longer than what was aired and many of the choro was edited out. Therefore, what was shown was not half of what they did. D*Day put out a video to clear up the misconception, and the Les Twins replied to their video and them on twitter telling them to “not worry about it and GOOD LUCK!” In addition, D_Trix sent them a twitter message after seeing their video clarifying things and said he “respected them for what they posted and apologized to them and wished them luck!” So, there you have THE REAL story!
Okay. Let’s be clear.
1) The on-screen graphic from “So You Think You Can Dance” shows Deon’s last name as Lewsa Jr., not Lewis. I can only go by the information on my TV screen when writing up names.
2) I thought I heard them being introduced as the “D-Day Twins” on the show Thursday night, and every site I looked at today when writing this up also used the word “Twins” in their name. I’ve been unable to find a video that contains the full aired version of their introduction to verify if I heard correctly or not.
3) In your comment, you failed to post a link to the video that Deon and Damon put out explaining things. Thankfully, I was finally able to find it (after about two hours of searching): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AukjklkJMI.
4) If the Les Twins replied to the above video, I can’t find it. Again, links from you to support your claim would be awesome.
5) Despite the last sentence of your comment, my blog entry is THE REAL story. It was an entry about a controversy that erupted following the season premier of SYTYCD. Damon’s and Deon’s video doesn’t actually change the fact that what we saw was a nearly exact copy of the Les Twins routine. That means there is still a controversy about their audition. Had I know about their video when I wrote my entry, I would have included it (and I spent about an hour looking for anything from them on YouTube as I wrote it).
6) In addition, their video doesn’t mean we now have “THE REAL story,” as you put it. The video is simply their side of the story. We haven’t heard SYTYCD’s side of the story. And even if they come out and fully support Damon’s and Deon’s version of what happened, we will still have a controversy on our hands since we still saw a nearly exact copy of the Les Twins routine.
Token white guy,my intentions is not to be rude. My intentions are to clarify what you may NOT know, that’s why I said let’s be clear. I’m not a fan responding, I am Deon Lewis’ step mother. The response to the D*Day video from the Les Twins (like I stated before) was done on twitter. It is on the Les Twins timeline under @Lestwinsonline and on Deon and Damon’s timeline under @Deon_J_Lewis and @DamonBellmon. I don’t know how to copy tweets into this comment so you can verify the responce by going to their timeline. D*Day posted that video the same night all this went down I believe, but it was late. Like I said before, their entire dance was longer then what was shown and the first half had some choro from the Les Twins and the other half was thier own choro. The two tapes of choro are similar, but they modified some of the choro to fit their personality. They have had this same tribute to the Les Twins on youtube for a while now that shows the complete dance. I do not deny that there is “controversy” over this whole thing, but it would have been nice if someone would have bothered to get “all” side of story first before blasting them in their blogs. I didn’t post the link to the video because I was able to pull it up as soon as I googled it, so I thought it was easy for you to find. I find it interesting that the Producers would just place the Les Twins song on their audition dance during editing and edit out their acknowledgment of the Les Twins??? Not rocket science to me…it’s called TV.
Oh, and I appreciate you attempting to research for a post from D*Day before you wrote what you understood of the situation.
Actually, now I’m finding out that the responce D*Day received from the “Les Twins” may have been just a fan page and not a responce directly from them since it not a verified site. (Just a side note) However, D*Days explination of what happened still stands for their side of the story.
@ Kenita Pierce-Lewis:
You know, this is an excellent reminder about how difficult it can be to put written words into context. Knowing that you are Deon Lewis’ step-mother completely changes how I read your original comment. It would also have changed how I had responded.
So while I eat this huge bowl of crow, let me start over.
Welcome to the “Idol Radio Show” website. I’m honored that you took the time to comment on my blog entry about this.
My original entry was never intended to slam Damon and Deon. I simply intended to address the controversy and ask my readers what they thought about it.
In reading back through my original post, however, I realize I failed to take into account that the routine could have been edited. I know SYTYCD does edit auditions, but it never occurred to me they could have edited it to become a near mirror-copy of the Les Twins routine.
My radio show is on vacation next week, but I would love to have you or Damon and Deon (if SYTYCD allows them to give interviews at this point) on the show Thursday, June 9, to talk about all this and give their side of the story.
Also, did anyone by chance record their audition? Or did the guys ever record their entire routine elsewhere? If so, I would be happy to post the routine on the site.
Thank you for your post! I appreciate your words and explanation.
How could you have known who I was? I did not identify myself. So, no offense taken.
I am not sure what the legalities are on interviews right now. However, I will check with Deon and get back with you.
Good Morning Token White Guy…I wanted you to see this video posted from Damon with D*Day…has his final response to all the negative comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSeoSnrUfLo&feature=share
I will be getting you the video link to the video with the whole dance as well.
Have a great one!
Oh my gosh! Damon was hilarious in that video! Thanks for linking me to it.
Looking forward to the dance routine video. Am looking at creating a new blog entry about all this sometime this week.
Yea, he was pretty funny!!!
OK….Here you go. The video has a couple of routines attached. The dance you are looking for starts at time 2:57. You will see SOME of the choro from the Les Twins..then it will go into their choro, and then there will be one more step from the Les Twins in the last part, and then the rest theirs. The song that is in this video is the song they actually did the audition to, and this is the dance they did. So, you can see where the edits actually took place. I’ll let it speak for itself. Let me know what yoou think….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvdv3VQpwUM
Oh, and you are the only media personnel that I have identified myself to and have provided this information for. So, I’m trusting you!! :)
I have been wondering about what happened to the D*Day duo after the show and you-know-what storm resulted. We watched sytycd to see them again but never saw them in Vegas. Do you know what happened?
In addition, I read the string with the step-mother above and watched the video explanation. If the two really did attribute it to Les Twins as they should have, then Fox should have clearly posted it. However, the show is about ratings and maybe they knew controversy and more interest would ensue so they did it on purpose. Hey, it is the Fox Network and I don’t have too much respect for it. However, I wonder why the judges would then pass them through to Vegas based on, not only the dancing, but the choreo (my take from the judges comments that night)? That would just make them look stupid if they really knew.
Something else – when I read through the comments below the response video from Deon there is a comment that mentions that D*Day may have used someone else’s choreo at an event before. I went and watched and it does appear that they used Brian Puspos choreo that goes with the song Move If You Wanna at a Velvet Rope event in which D*Day performed and there was no attribution and clearly no editing. Now, I don’t know if that is actually their choreo and Brian Puspos used it but if not, it clearly looks like a pattern.
No clue what happened to D-Day. Obviously they didn’t make it to the Top 20 Reveal, but I have no clue at what point they were cut. There isn’t anything on their YouTube channel I can find. Hopefully Damon’s step-mom will see this and let us know how far they got.
Nigel did send a tweet about a week after I wrote this post saying that it was a shame that D-Day didn’t tell the show that they were doing a Les Twins tribute. That said, I agree with you. SYTYCD should have kept the Les Twins mention in the show if, as D-Day says, they made in one of the taped portions. And I wouldn’t be surprised if FOX or the show did deliberately cut the mention, cut down the act, and change the music as D-Day claims. It certainly got a lot of people talking about the show.
Since I wrote this article, I’ve seen mentions of them biting Brian Puspos as well. And, like you, saw that no mention was made in the video of them performing that routine. It does seem to set a pattern for the guys, which is a shame, because they are very talented. It’s going to be difficult for them to overcome all this. But I wish them the best.
Sorry Guys! I just got a chance to check the page. I just want to make one clarification. I am Deon’s step mom not Damon’s (lol), and yes, I can clear it up. They were in the beginning of the Vegas taping, but they were cut in Vegas. I can’t go into detail because of legalities. However, the judges told them to come back next year and that they are really talented. In regards to Nigel’s tweet. He said although he doesn’t judge choro (meaning that’s not the judges focus) the judges were not aware of their shout out; however, they did good. But like I said, they did tell the show about the Les Twins and there was a whole interview portion on it. However, D*Day is doing great!! In regards to the other comments on other videos. These boys are talented regardless. They work hard everyday perfecting their craft. The bottom line is no dance is brand new! Every dance out there has been done before and reinvented honestly. Show me an original dance out there in hip hop or any dance back ground. So, everyone is entitled to an oppinion. It doesn’t take away from the fact that they can dance! However, they are doing great! Their fan base is SOLID and they are already getting approached with other opportunities to get out there. So, hopefully this will not be the last you see of them!
Needless to say, Deon said they won’t be making any more tribute routines! LOL