When the first lady’s office called about an unannounced, details-to-come “Let’s Move!” event at a local middle school, I thought: Will this involve Beyoncé?
After all, last week the singer released the full version of “Move Your Body,” a kids’ dance workout video, for the White House childhood obesity initiative. It was a good guess, but no Beyoncé sightings. On the other hand, I did get to see Mrs. Obama do the Dougie.
The first lady surprised about 450 excited students on the field of Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. for the “Let’s Move! Flash Workout,” a nationwide dance-in to encourage physical fitness. Deal was one of 600 schools across the country (and one in Japan, on Misawa Air Base) to participate in the choreographed dance/exercise routine demonstrated in the catchy Beyoncé video. The songstress herself dropped in on a school in New York as part of the dance-in.
“This is what we’ve been talking about—that exercise and moving can be fun,” Mrs. Obama told the students, who wildly cheered when she rounded the corner of their school onto the field. “If you all practiced and learned this video, you were working out. You could teach it to your little brothers and sisters, to your parents. And this is way more fun than sitting in front of the TV.”
With that, the sound system cued the song as the students performed the moves, which include the Dougie, the Running Man and the Cha-Cha. Mrs. Obama, who claimed she hadn’t had time to learn the dance, followed along on the sidelines and gamely kept up.
And we have exclusive video. Enjoy!