Vikings’ Camryn Bynum prepares to introduce a new dance during playoffs

Camryn Bynum has been working on his moves — his dance moves, that is.

The Minnesota Vikings safety has gone viral for his celebration dances, often inspired by pop culture. He’s earned the notice of Lindsay Lohan when he copied her secret handshake from the movie “Parent Trap,” and got a positive comment from actor Marlon Wayans when he emulated a move from the movie “White Chicks.”

Now he’s taking things up a notch, learning a dance that has taken intensive lessons to perfect. At the House of Dance Twin Cities in Edina, Bynum broke down a complex series of breakdance moves one step at a time on New Year’s Eve to learn the windmill routine. The move involves a shoulder stand, swinging his legs and holding his body weight up with his arms, all while twisting and rolling his body. He’s planning to debut the dance during the playoffs.

Last November, when Bynum broke out the kangaroo move, inspired by Australian breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn’s controversial routine during the 2024 Paris Olympics, Twin Cities breakdancer and instructor Jake “Bboy Boogie B” Riley took note.

For the past 10 years, Riley has owned the House of Dance with his wife, Bao Lee, offering classes in hip-hop and breaking styles. Riley has been breaking for 20 years, having first started while at Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park. As a dancer, he toured with Vanilla Ice and competed in Belgium and France. He also performed with Justin Timberlake during the halftime show at Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium. “That was a cool experience,” he said.

Riley is thrilled to get back into the football world again, this time working closely with a player. He choreographs for the Timberwolves’ 1st Ave. Breakers, but he also happens to be a huge Vikings fan.

Riley said he was especially impressed with Bynum’s Raygun moves. While elaborate group celebrations were disallowed until 2017, the House of Dance instructor had never seen a player perform an actual breakdance move in a game before.

So, Riley tagged Bynum in an Instagram story (for 24 hours) of Riley’s U.S. Bank Stadium performance. He offered him a free breakdancing class.

“He ended up liking the story and started following us, so we messaged him,” Riley said. Soon after, Bynum wound up at the couple’s Edina studio, ready to take his celebration dances to the next level.

Bynum arrived for his first lesson last November. “At the end of the first lesson, he was like, OK, what do I need to have done by next week? What’s my homework? What are the goals?” Riley said.

The 26-year-old defender wanted specifics about how many repetitions he should do for each technique he was learning. He also recorded the session with his phone in order to go back to the tape later for practice.

On New Year’s Eve, Bynum stepped into the studio for his third one-hour lesson with Riley and with a determination to have the dance down pat.

“I’ve got to lock in,” he said. “That’s the next step I’ve got to take with the celebration, and start taking it seriously.”

Bynum said he’s always dreamed of learning to breakdance. As a kid, he could actually do some moves but never took lessons. “You just throw your body around,” he recalled. “Now that I’m older, trying to do it the right way and be safe while doing it,” he said. “Mastering the technique is probably the hardest part.”

With previous celebration dances, Bynum would watch a dance a few times and try it out. But he found that the art of breaking was a more involved process during his dance lessons. “I’m here struggling, grinding, sweating. I can’t just do this by practicing at home,” he said.

Watching Bynum practice his moves reveals why he’s so successful as a player. He may be new to dancing, but as an athlete, he has an understanding of the way his body moves. He’s also acutely aware of how to balance his body, even when in an inverted position.

That’s typical of breaking. It’s a low-to-the-ground art form, which is a bit different from other kinds of dances Bynum has performed before.

Being a professional athlete, Bynum already had a head start in some ways, according to Riley. He was impressed with how long he could hold a stretch, like the squat position.

“I would be struggling really hard to do that,” Riley said. Other moves need a bit more coaching, especially when it comes to the hip flexors, which are crucial in breaking.

During his dance lesson, Bynum made the observation that working on the complex balances in breakdancing doesn’t differ that much from football. “Everything’s technique,” he said. “Tackling is all footwork, more than it is using your upper body.”

To get to the NFL, players have to have discipline ingrained into their work ethic. Bynum takes things even further, taking on additional projects that stretch his mind and body and take a ton of practice.

As a senior in college, when COVID-19 caused shutdowns, Bynum learned piano and bass guitar. “I finally had time to actually sit down, so I started learning music,” he said. “That was like my off day thing.” Like the music training, learning to dance is another activity that offers an additional challenge to his concentration and skill outside of his football game.

He said he gets his attention to detail from his upbringing, especially his mom. “Growing up, cleaning the house — if we didn’t do it right, we got to do it again,” he said.

Midway through his New Year’s Eve lesson, Bynum said he was starting to get the hang of things, but wasn’t happy yet.

“I’m not happy until I can do it without [Riley] talking me through it,” he said. “I’m a perfectionist with the tiniest things. I think that’s what made me good at football.