On 6 October we came across a Facebook reel that looked new at first glance: two dancers we had never seen, a West Coast Swing routine, a crowd cheering in the background. Meta had labelled it as AI content, and the uploader listed the sound as "original audio".
It wasn't original. The routine was Jordan Frisbee and Emeline Rochefeuille's Champions Jack&Jill at Budafest 2020, danced to "Macarena". That video is part of our catalogue and lives on the West Coast Swing YouTube channel. Someone had run the footage through an AI tool that redrew the dancers as different people. Every step, every hit and every pause still landed exactly where it does in the original. When we found it, the reel had around 800,000 views, and the same clip was running as a collab post on Instagram.
What AI can do now
Copying a dance video used to mean re-uploading it, maybe mirrored, cropped or slowed down. That still happens every day. What's new is that a tool can take a recorded performance and put new faces, bodies and outfits on it while keeping the choreography and the timing intact. To a casual viewer it looks like a fresh video with fresh dancers.
Why it doesn't work
Swapping the dancers doesn't change what the reel is: a copy of someone else's work.
- The sound gives it away. Our videos carry an audio watermark. The reel used the original soundtrack, cheering and room noise included, and our tracking matched it.
- The movement gives it away. A dance that follows the original beat for beat is not a new performance. We reported the picture as a derivative of our footage, not just the audio.
- Platforms act quickly on clear cases. We sent one copyright report to Meta. Eight minutes later the reel was gone, removed by Meta's automated system. The Instagram post is still under review.
For the uploader, all that effort ended in a deleted reel and a copyright complaint against the account.
What gets lost
The copyright side is the easy part. What bothers us more is in the comments under the copy: viewers recognised Jordan and Emeline by name. People could tell.
That clip is worth watching because two of the most successful dancers in West Coast Swing improvised together, live, to music they hadn't chosen. An AI copy keeps the steps and throws away the people who made them. It takes the reach that belongs to the dancers and to the videographers who were at the event with a camera.
If you want to use a dance video
Ask us. You can license a video for TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels or YouTube, and you get a clear right to use it instead of the risk of losing the post and the reach that came with it.
If you find a copy of one of our videos, AI-generated or not, report it here.