Harry Styles' Backup Dancer Details Technical Difficulties During Grammys Performance

02/07/2023 01:54 pm EST

Harry Styles' performance of "As It Was" during the 65th Annual Grammy Awards Sunday night did not go as planned, and it was all the turntable's fault. Styles' backup dancers said the performance was thrown off balance once the giant turntable they rehearsed on for 10 days began turning the wrong way. Dancers Dexter Da Rocha and Brandon Mathis shared their stories of how things went haywire on social media Monday.

The "As It Was" performance was influenced by the song's music video, with Styles joining a group of backup dancers performing elaborate moves on a giant red turntable. During rehearsals, the dancers were prepared for the turntable to turn counterclockwise, Da Rocha said in a since-deleted TikTok video. "It was difficult and it was frustrating making those patterns while something's moving and having all this spatial awareness," Da Rocha explained, via Entertainment Tonight. "At dress rehearsal, it was gorgeous, it was amazing. We get on stage for the performance, the performance starts, and the turntable starts going the wrong way."

The dancers tried to get the attention of a stage technician, but it was too late. The dancers suddenly had to "switch all those patterns around on the spot" with no practice to prepare for this kind of technical glitch. "Since it's circular, it pulls you in different directions and is such a special type of balance," Da Rocha explained. "We got accustomed to one way, and it was the opposite way. So, luckily we worked together and did our best and got to one cool formation in time for the overhead shot but had to change the rest."

Although social media users criticized the performance, Da Rocha praised Styles and the other dancers for doing their best in such trying circumstances. "Harry did his best to be able to walk and reverse everything while he was singing and reverse his entire duet," Da Rocha said. "Unfortunately, news outlets didn't know what was happening, so they called it lethargic or boring or whatever, but it really was that we're just trying to f-ing stay standing."

Da Rocha wasn't the only dancer to speak out. Mathis shared several photos from the performance and mentioned the technical difficulties in a message to artistic director Yoann Bourgeois. "To spend a week immersed in your brilliant mind is nothing short of amazing," Mathis wrote to Bourgeois. "And I am so grateful to you for your trust, your compassion, and your willingness to play and stay soft through it all. Even ridiculous technical difficulties that none of us could have prepared for."

Styles won Album of the Year at the Grammys for Harry's House, surprisingly beating out Beyonce's Renaissance and Lizzo's Special. Harry's House also won Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. "As It Was" was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. 

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