Did a dancer really fall off the stage during Usher’s Super Bowl performance? The TikTok rumor, explained

Super Bowl 58 was so stacked with entertainment and drama that it’s hard to keep track of it all. Between Taylor Swift’s many “outrageous” appearances on the screen, Usher and Alicia Keys’ steamy interactions on stage, and the widely panned “He Gets Us” commercials, it was easy to miss a half-time faux pas.

While Usher was distracting viewers with his soulful sounds, one TikTok user spotted a hapless dancer wandering a bit too close to the edge of the stage. With the emergence of a story from a woman claiming to be the dancer herself, many are wondering if they need to get their eyes checked.

Did a dancer fall off the stage during Usher’s half-time performance?

TikTok user Nikkimarie_X0x0 was the first to postulate that a dancer had fallen from the stage. In a video reshared from the official NFL account, she pointed to a moment when a dancer on a pole plummets behind Ludacris’s shoulder. The video cuts before the dancer reappears, and for more than a brief moment, much of the internet believed they witnessed a devastating fall.

The rumor gained traction after known huckster, Loulouorange claimed to be the dancer. Sporting a black eye and a wrist brace, Louisa Melcher spins an excellent story. She dramatically retells her tale, detailing how she landed the job despite being woefully unqualified. She goes into a detailed story of how she spent the night before the concert practicing skating in the hotel after the original dancer caught COVID-19. Despite her “hours of practice,” the bright lights dazzled her and before she knew it, she “basically yeeted myself off the side of the stage.”

Commenters were quick to point out that the dancer hadn’t been wearing roller skates in the brief clip before LouLouorange’s fans informed them of the schtick. It’s not the first time the satirical account has confused innocent TikTok bystanders. She’s cashed in on some drama from the Grammy’s, claimed to know the tea about Timothy Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, and Selena Gomez, and has even convinced viewers that she has an advanced mood reading neural implant.  

The dance side of TikTok eventually swooped in to inform viewers that the specific move performed on the pole is called a drop. Also known as a Swan slide, a ball drop, or a drama queen pole drop, the move requires dancers to climb to the top of a dancing pole and drop suddenly and dramatically. Several other dancers on poles can be seen along the stage, and while the dancer in question may have dropped a little earlier than her partners, it’s clear that the move was choreographed.