Dad who went viral for daddy-daughter dance in wheelchair shares the story behind the video
"I had to relearn how to do everything from crawling, eating, like I had to relearn everything."
Dad shares story behind the viral video of his daddy-daughter dance.
Many parents will do just about anything for their children, but oftentimes that just means showing up for events and being their biggest cheerleader. It's a seemingly small act that can absolutely mean the world to a child and creates positive core memories they'll talk about with their own children.
For one dad, showing up for his kids' activities got a little more challenging after he was struck by a drunk driver in 2006. The accident left him using a wheelchair. "I had to relearn how to do everything from crawling, eating, like I had to relearn everything," Charles Potter told Good Morning America. But that hasn't stopped him from doing all the dances his daughter's school puts on, like the one that went viral in December 2022.
Potter was on stage participating in a daddy-daughter dance recital when his wife caught it on video and uploaded it to TikTok, where it quickly went viral. The video currently has over 13 million views, 2.2 million likes and over 37K comments, and while the text overlay gave some background on the video, it doesn't tell the complete story.
Potter explained to GMA that his daughter's school puts on the father-daughter dances every few months, so they've done them several times. But when his daughter first asked if he would participate, the dad didn't hesitate.
"My youngest is doing ... a dance hip-hop chair class. And they had these daddy-daughter dances and she asked if I was up to, you know, doing them with [her]," he told GMA. "I was like, 'If you want to. Yeah, absolutely. We'll make it work.'"
The interesting thing about these dances is that there's no instructor. The family is sent an instructional video and they're in charge of learning the routine on their own, so they modify the movements accordingly and practice after school.
"They get like, two or three weeks to learn the dance on their own," Potter's wife, Rhonda Conrad, told GMA. "They don't have anyone teaching them. It's all done in the living room."
Potter's dance video with his daughter is sweet for many reasons, but it's made even sweeter by the love and dedication from a father to his daughter.
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