Saturday, May 27th 2023, 7:24 pm
A Broken Arrow dance team of seven and eight-year-old girls dressed up as grandmas and are being recognized around the world after a video of their dance recital got more than nine million views on TikTok.
Broken Arrow Dance Academy coaches Julie Hawkins and Regina Perevertaylo say the routine only took five hours to teach the girls but is giving them memories that last a lifetime.
After a late night drafting up ideas, their coaches came up with a dance routine with the intention of just letting kids have fun and do what they love.
"We were tired. We were on sleep deprivation and it was 3 a.m. and we found a song and we were like 'This is it' and then we just kept finding another song and we were like okay they're old people. Done. It's the best concept," Hawkins said.
The team of eight girls donned their gray wigs and moved their walkers onto the stage. What happened next is what sent social media into a frenzy.
Hannah Raymer uploaded this video to TikTok. She was in the audience supporting her niece.
It wasn't long before the views came pouring in.
"When I uploaded it, it was like a couple hundred thousand. I think it was like 200,000 in an hour or two. I thought hey clearly it's going to stop then," Raymer said.
By the next morning, the video was viewed more than 1 million times.
"She's on the phone and she's like you have to wake up. I was like. 'why what's going on?' She was like. 'the grannies went viral! The grannies went viral!'," Hawkins said.
The video steadily gained a million views each day and received comments from some of the girls' favorite businesses and influencers.
Their love for dance keeps them humble, but their dreams of fame do come with one wish.
Dancer Leah Hammers says her wish is to go to Hollywood while teammate Ellie Barlow says she prefers a cruise or DisneyLand.
Hawkins says several companies have reached out to the team including a cruise line and she is hopeful of performance opportunities.
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