The Banks family had a moment on Tuesday night, and it wasn’t easy to watch with dry eyes. On Dancing with the Stars Dedication Night, Tatyana Ali dedicated her dance to her late TV father, James Avery, and her on-screen brother Alfonso Ribeiro joined her for it.
A Waltz for Uncle Phil
Ali, who played Ashley Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, danced a Viennese waltz with pro partner Jan Ravnik on the Oct. 20 episode of Season 35. Their song was Nancy Wilson’s “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am,” and theGrio reports Ali also recorded her own version of it for the tribute.
Ribeiro, now a DWTS co-host and the show’s Season 19 champion, left the host’s spot to join her on the dance floor, after taking part in rehearsals too. The routine ended with Avery’s photo on the screen while the two former castmates looked up at it.
Ali told PEOPLE, as reported by theGrio, that the tribute wouldn’t have felt right “without Alfonso on the stage with me.” Ribeiro said joining her felt natural, and called it a chance to say thank you to the man who played Philip Banks.
The Father Figure Behind the Role
For a generation of viewers, Avery’s Uncle Phil was the model TV dad: a stern judge who would still drop everything for his family. Ali says he played that role off camera too. She called him a mentor who “taught me all the artists he thought I needed to know,” and in an Instagram post ahead of the show she said everything she believes about being an artist came from him.
Avery died in December 2013 at 68. More than a decade later, a dance-competition ballroom turned into a family reunion for the Banks household. If you’ve been enjoying the return of Black sitcom history, like Netflix’s A Different World revival, this one hit the same spot.
Why it matters: Fresh Prince is still family TV for Black households across generations. Seeing two of its stars use a primetime stage to honor the man who held that family together is the kind of legacy moment our audience grew up on.
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Sources: theGrio, Dance Mogul, TODAY
