This Dancing Mom Became a Social Media Sensation

When my business — a dance studio — shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, it was crushing for me. I’d left a corporate accounting job in 2009 to launch the studio so I could be home more with my seven children. Now it looked like my life’s work was going down the drain. I wondered, What am I going to do? There was lots of prayer.

Around this time, I saw my kids looking at TikTok. I would ask to make videos with them, but they would say, “No, it’s not for you.” Still, I would see people on the app doing dances to old-school songs and think, That’s not how you dance hip-hop. So I took matters into my own hands. I pulled out the old-school moves and told the camera, “This is how you dance to this song.”

AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal

Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.

Join Now

That video went viral, and I got 300,000 followers within 14 days. I was, like, What just happened? Then I started creating my own choreography. Now I have over a million followers across all platforms.

Hip-hop is a whole movement. I don’t want us to forget how it started. You’ve got to have the Running Man. You’ve got to have the Cabbage Patch. Those dances take us back to a time where things were a lot simpler.

I was able to save my business. I’ve learned that when there’s a problem, if you just keep moving forward, you’re going to run into the solution.

Marie “BustinMoves” Moring, 47, is a Georgia dance influencer and creator of the BustinMoves TV entertainment and education app.