Super Fly First Lady, Michelle Obama and actress/activist Kerry Washington made their way to Savoy Elementary School in Southeast, Washington, D.C. on Friday for a day of inspiration, cool dance moves, and a funky good time. The first lady and a special group of pre-k students get their groove on to the sounds of the late great James Brown. The Mom-In-Chief took part in a game of “Freeze Dance” while the legend’s, whom the kids called the “Godfather of Soul,” music played. The “freeze dance” helps the students to focus while getting exercise at the same time.
Kerry Washington adopted the school in the capital’s Anacostia neighborhood as part of the Turnaround Arts initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which will give grants to low-income schools, seeking to improve students’ overall performance through arts education. Kerry an advocate of the movement, also got her own one on one time in with the kiddies, breaking out in some moves of her own on stage and showing off her storytelling skills to a classroom of students.
In a speech, FLOTUS later praised the actress, saying:
Kerry is a big-time star right now. Big time. I mean, there is no bigger star right now than Kerry,” Obama said. “She’s not just a beautiful, fashionable, talented woman, but she’s real inside, and there is beauty deep inside. The fact that she is flying all over the country, but she comes to spend time with you guys and she does it for real … it shows more her love for all of you. So, Kerry, love you, girl. Keep it going. Very proud of you.”
She also said:
“She spent a lot of time developing her craft. She spent a lot of time practicing and working and trying out for things and having people tell her. ‘No,’ ‘No thank you,’ ‘You’re not good enough,’ ‘You’re not pretty enough.’ Could you imagine somebody telling Kerry that she wasn’t pretty enough, she wasn’t tall enough, she was too short? That’s all performing is, is rejection. … But when you work hard and you invest thousands of hours in anything, you get better. And that’s what you guys are learning here at Savoy.”
When asked about her visit to the school, Kerry Washington aka Olivia Pope said:
“It opens them up. It helps them be front and center, not just on the stage but in their lives and in the classroom.”
Check out video of the FLOTUS and Savoy Students getting down to James Brown:
Dopeness!!!
