SHIRLEY CLEMENTS retires with hip hop energy
Photos courtesy of the Ellen Show
By Janet Nicol, Killarney Secondary School, Vancouver
“60-Year-Old Kills Hip Hop Routine—LIVE!” ellentube.com/videos/0-979q28fp/
SHIRLEY CLEMENTS, a dance and physical education teacher at North Surrey Secondary school, was about to close the door on her 25-year teaching career when she prepared 40 students for Outbreak, an annual dance competition. “I thought, ‘this time I’m going to dance,’” Clements says in an interview. She never dreamed more doors would open—including an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’s television show with 12 of her top students. “The experience on Ellen was surreal,” she says. “But then, my life has been full of serendipity.” Clad in a red jacket with sequins and track pants, Clements and her students moved to Bruno Mar’s “Uptown Funk” in a fast-paced hip-hop break-dance routine. Clements’s energy was infectious. She even threw in a high kick and performed a double spin—on her head. Surrey’s student dance competition, which now boasts more than 750 participants, was created 19 years ago by Clements, 18 TEACHER November/December 2015
after she and other teachers successfully expanded the district’s program. Money from admission tickets has gone toward a $5000 scholarship as well as the purchase of “on loan” tap shoes for students.
She even threw in a high kick and performed a double spin—on her head. Clements, who retires this October 31, teaches beginner, intermediate, and advanced dance courses, all electives. She also teaches an “elite” student group during “x” block. “You can feel the electricity in the audience,” Clement says about the dance competition where she made her mark
last January. Captured on video, one of her former students uploaded the clip to “Ellen Tube”—the official web site of Ellen DeGeneres. “Students were coming up to me and saying, ‘did you know you are on Ellen Tube?’”, Clements says. The school principal approached her too. “He asked me if he could tweet it out.” After thousands of hits, the video got Ellen’s attention and in June she invited Clements and twelve students to appear on her show. Clements says they practised all summer. Their hard work paid off when they travelled to Los Angeles in September and gave a great “repeat” performance on Ellen’s show. “They are my love and they are part of my heart,” Clements told Ellen about her students. “They work their butts off and