Tatyana Ali and professional partner Jan Ravnik performed a Viennese waltz honoring the late James Avery during Dancing With the Stars’ Dedication Night, with fellow Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum Alfonso Ribeiro joining the routine partway through, Page Six reports. The performance earned a score of 32 out of 40.
The routine was set to Nancy Wilson’s “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am,” with Ali recording the vocals herself rather than dancing to an existing track. Her costume drew inspiration from Eartha Kitt, a resemblance Avery used to point out to her, while the choreography incorporated lessons he’d passed down to the show’s young cast decades earlier. Judge Bruno Tonioli told Ali she appeared to be “floating on the wings of [her] guardian angel.”
Ali described Avery as a father figure throughout her time on the series, saying he taught her that performing could be a form of genuine contribution rather than simply a job. She grew emotional discussing the tribute, saying she knew immediately that if she reached Dedication Night, it would be dedicated to him. Ribeiro, who co-hosts the show, called joining the routine “an opportunity to say thank you” to Avery, who died in 2013 following complications from open-heart surgery, describing him as “the most lovable, charismatic, intelligent person.”
Ali’s career began well before Fresh Prince, starting on Sesame Street at age six and continuing through Star Search before she landed the role of Ashley Banks at 11. The show also launched her music career, leading to her gold-certified 1998 album Kiss the Sky and the Billboard Hot 100 top-10 single “Daydreamin’,” followed by tours alongside *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. After Fresh Prince ended in 1996, Ali graduated from Harvard with a degree in African American Studies and Government, later returning to television with roles in The Young and the Restless, Love That Girl!, and Abbott Elementary, alongside a Broadway run in Fences, five NAACP Image Awards, and advocacy work around Black maternal health.
With Avery’s influence still shaping how she approaches performance decades later, Ali’s tribute connects a specific throughline in her career: a child actor mentored by one of television’s most beloved father figures, now a veteran performer still carrying his lessons into a competition built around reinvention and reinterpretation.