By Amelia Wonder
Junior Anniston Almond was hoping to create the next generation of “Hiphoppers.”And on November 20th, Lovett lower schoolers showcased an amazing Hip Hop performance, and Anniston gave me the inside scoop on how it all came to be.
First, she told me that her role was not to do the choreography for the younger students; that was primarily the responsibility of Coach Aaron James. He held many roles, including creative director, choreographer, dancer, and actor, with impressive credits that include collaborations with America’s Best Dance Crew, Pharrell, Little Big Town, T- Pain, the CMT Awards, Jacob Latimore, and more.
Junior Sonia Kukreja and sophomore Margaret Whitis, along with Anniston, were the other upper school students who helped lower schoolers bring their creativity to life through the art of hip-hop dance.
Anniston loved her experiences ”assisting with the lower school hip hop classes, helping go over choreography with the students, organizing and distributing costumes for them, helping with carpool, and encouraging good behavior in the class.”
Her ultimate motivation to get involved in this program was her love for encouraging others. “I just love helping other people do what they love and sharing what I love to do with other people,” Anniston explained.
This passion sparked while working as a counselor at “Creativity Camp,” led by Lovett mom and businesswoman Alice Park. “I also have helped with teaching students gymnastics in the past as well, and enjoyed that a lot,” she said, “and so I thought this could be similar.”
Not only is she good at working behind the scenes, but she is also actually a dancer herself! “I danced a lot when I was little, and I quit for some time when I moved to Atlanta,” she told me. Starting again in 7th grade, Anniston admitted she was a bit rusty but has “been taking dance classes now since then at Lovett and outside of Lovett at multiple different studios,” all helping her “grow a lot.” She told me that hip-hop is one of her favorite styles and that she dances it often on Lovett’s Dance Team.
Focusing on the lower school dancers, I was intrigued by the inspiration behind their dance. Anniston told me the dance was titled “Party Like A Rockstar” and encapsulating a “rockstar” was really the main goal. She told me Coach James incorporated “a moshpit” and crowdsurfing section of the dance, highlighting a “rock concert feel.”
Working with young kids can be fun at times, as they are usually happy and full of energy, but it can also sometimes be challenging, given their young age and immaturity. Anniston said sometimes it was hard to get her students to listen, but when they did, the practices were “super fun.” She especially enjoyed “their entertaining stories and jokes.” One student “would always come in to practice and tell me dad jokes,” After she happened to mention to the girls that her humour was basically just dad jokes.
The kids could also be very endearing. Another student made necklaces and bracelets for the three teachers. Another time, one of the kids gave her “a huge hug” at a Lovett football game. She “wouldn’t let go” making it “so funny and sweet!” All of this confirmed that she was making an impact on the girls.
Then again, kids can be kids in a not-so-great way, too. “We had to deal with some girls not being kind to each other, which was tough,” she said. “It worked out fine, [but] ultimately just broke my heart to see lower school students be so unkind to one another.”
When assisting Coach James, her approach was informed by his three strategies to help the students learn their dance. The first was “a sit-down game.” Essentially, “the girls would do the dance a bunch of times and Coach James would eliminate them if they did a move wrong, were in the wrong spot, or off on timing,” she told me. The winner at the end wins a big prize. In the past, kids have won all sorts of prizes from “a giant stuffed animal” to every little kid’s favorite toy, “a Labubu”, “which we all thought was hilarious, of course, Anniston said.
Doing the dance in “small chunks” and “splitting up the class” was another strategy that became very beneficial in the long run. “He would teach one set of the students one part of the dance and another a different part of the dance, allowing them to have one group practicing at one time and one group learning, and then he would put them together,” Anniston explained.
Coach James’ other strategy was called “DONUTS.” He would write the word on the board, taking a letter off “each time a student did something wrong or the class was talking.” If the class was able to maintain at least 1 letter at the end of the class, he would bring donuts to share. The incentive is “literally sweet,” and Anniston told me that she “could tell it helped.”
One of the times when Coach James and those assisting him felt super proud of the dancers was on the “first or second day of them learning the second dance.” They were learning how to do a “groove” to the “Getting Jiggy With It song.” She said that groove involves feeling the rhythm rather than being “super robotic.” The dancers were able to quickly catch on to this move directly after being shown how to do it. “It was clear to see how proud Coach James was of them, and that was awesome to see,” she said.
As for the dance concert, you just had to see it! “I think the audience was mostly just impressed by the lower school’s ability to pull off something so clean,” she said. In dance, “clean” means that “there were few mistakes and most people were on the same timing,” she explained
Anniston’s ultimate lesson from this experience is one that I think many struggle to remember: the importance of being patient. “I am not super patient, which is obviously hard when dealing with younger students who are all friends and are loud, but I think that I honestly just had so much fun and made the best out of anyone talking or not doing what they were supposed to do,” she said. “I also realized that things take time and I needed to be okay with that.”
