Taylor Swift Dancer's Sweet Gesture to Travis Kelce

Swifties are convinced one of Taylor Swift's backup dancers honored Travis Kelce by incorporating one of his touchdown celebrations into their dance routine.

The pop superstar kicked off the European leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour in Paris on May 9 and she has performed four sold-out shows at the city's La Défense Arena, with Kelce attending the final gig on Sunday night.

Swift made a large amount of changes to the set—including one that paid tribute to her football-playing boyfriend. Swift gave live debuts to seven tracks from her new album The Tortured Poets Department and performed a variety of fan-favorite TTPD tracks, including "But Daddy I Love Him," "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived," "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? and "So High School"—the latter of which is presumed to be about her relationship with Kelce.

Now fans believe Swift has borrowed the arm-roll dance move Kelce does after scoring a touchdown, with the gesture incorporated during the singer's "So High School" performance. As an added twist, one of Swift's background dancers is Kameron Saunders, the brother of former Kansas City Chiefs player Khalen Saunders.

@doodlethor

Omg 🫨 Taylor Swift’s first Chief game, 1st touch down Travis did while she was there watch. During The bears game, this is the touch down celebration dance moves travis did. #sohighschool #theerastour #taylorswift #traviskelcetaylorswift #traviskelce #tayvis #touchdown #chiefs #chiefskingdom

♬ original sound - DoodleTHOR

The singer's fans are convinced that it wasn't a coincidence, with X user (formerly Twitter) @NathanCHubbard uploading a video of the dance routine to X with the caption: "oh s*** Kam (brother of former Kelce teammate) did one of Travis' touchdown celebrations when she sang 'you know what you wanted and boy you got it.'"

Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Swift and Kelce for comment Tuesday.

At the time of writing the video had been viewed 488,800 times and people flocked to the comments to share other potential references to Kelce that they had noticed.

"The cheerleaders, the swag surfin, and the TK87 dance... so many references here," one person wrote.

Swag surfing is a dance that originated from the 2009 song "Swag Surfin." For years Black students at colleges and universities have used it to celebrate, with the dance and song now often being played at important sporting events, such as the Chiefs and Miami Dolphins NFL playoff game on January 13. During the game, Swift was seen swag surfing in the stands with Donna Kelce, Kelce's mother.

"And they're all swag surfing like the viral video of her at the cold Miami playoff game. Couple other Travis dance moves in there too," said another.

"Also the last move she does when she is standing up. Was the young joc move that Travis did when they got that TD at her first game," someone else commented.

A fourth added: "And the girl next to him does Trav's twerking move in practice (the one where he pretends to be hurt and then twerks)."

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
Travis Kelce on July 11, 2023, in Hollywood, California, and Taylor Swift on October 11, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. People think Swift's dancers were inspired by Kelce during a recent performance. JC Olivera/Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

They aren't the only people to notice the similarities, as a side-by-side of Kameron Saunders' dance move and Kelce's touchdown celebration was uploaded to TikTok by user @doodlethor.

"Omg [shocked face emoji] Taylor Swift's first Chief game, 1st touch down Travis did while she was there watch. During The bears game, this is the touch down celebration dance moves travis did," the caption reads.

"So High School" seems to be a hit with Kelce, who was seen dancing to it in the VIP area on Sunday, alongside Swift's friend Gigi Hadid and her boyfriend, Bradley Cooper. The sweet clip was shared to X by user @TayvisHaze.

When Swift gets to the lyric "I feel so high school every time I'm with you," the Kansas City Chief's tight end can be seen pointing to himself with both hands, before pointing at Swift performing, then back to himself again.

"Circling back to Trav pointing at Tay during 'I feel so high school every time i look at you,'" @TayvisHaze captioned the footage, along with a crying emoji.

Swift and Kelce began dating last summer, going public with their relationship in September. In February, the pop star flew from Japan to cheer on Kelce at the Super Bowl, with the Chiefs taking home the trophy in a 25–22 victory against the San Francisco 49ers.

Uncommon Knowledge

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer


Billie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. She reports on film and TV, trending ... Read more

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