About

Work Dance TikTok Trend refers to the act of copying Rihanna's dance in the music video to her 2016 song "Work" while a version of the audio plays in the background on TikTok. The trend, originating in late 2023, quickly spread among Russian TikTokers, with several examples of the dance being performed in school classrooms, hallways and outdoor locations into early 2024.

Origin

On December 27th, 2023, TikToker Zyra.Basco^[1] uploaded the first instance of the dance trend and audio combination to the platform. In this TikTok, kicking off the trend, the two content creators can be seen standing opposite each other while recreating Rihanna's middle movement to the chorus, earning over 11,500 likes in two months (shown below).

Spread

On March 6th, 2024, TikToker zaporozhetskk^[2] recreated the dance while in a school hallway. In this variation of the dance trend, however, it switches between two perspectives, with one-half of the hallway being girls doing the dance before switching to watching the boys attempt it, earning over 243,000 likes in two weeks (shown below).

On March 17th, the most viral usage of the audio and dance at the time was uploaded to TikTok by TikToker notkayshaa.^[3] In this version of the dance, notkayshaa has their daughter attempt to perform the dancing before turning around and smiling for the camera, earning over 3.6 million likes in three days and helping the trend to cross over from Russian to English influencers (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References