MANSIFELD — Keara Wilson’s happiest day in recent memory began with several notifications buzzing her phone.
Wilson, trained as a freestyle dancer and cheerleader at Madison Comprehensive High School, had been posting her original dance moves to her new-found favorite app, TikTok.
“I saw all of these people dancing, and I wanted to see if I could make something pop or go viral,” she said. “I fell in love with the app and I had just graduated and gotten out of the dancing thing.
“It felt so good. I love to dance.”
On March 10, She posted her dance to Savage, a hip-hop song by Megan Thee Stallion.
The first day her post garnered 222,800 likes. The next day, she posted a different video of the dance with a caption that said, “day 2 doing my dance till it goes viral 🤗”
That post earned 419,500 likes, 3,414 comments and 43,800 shares from the TikTok app.
“That’s when it really started climbing,” she said. “People were asking can you please post a tutorial?”
Soon, the choreographed dance was trending on TikTok.
Five days after her viral post, Megan Thee Stallion shared Wilson’s video to Instagram.
“The moment It happened, I saw a bunch of notifications from Instagram. I clicked on something and saw she posted me,” Wilsons aid. “I started screaming. I showed my family. I was crying tears of joy. It was the best moment.”
Megan Thee Stallion’s song soon reached No. 1 on iTunes, thanks to this trend begun by the 19-year-old Mansfield native, reported Genius.com
The song has more than 11 million plays on Spotify.
“It’s mindblowing. It makes me speechless; I helped her,” Wilson said. “It feels so good. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do — get popular off of my own creativity.
As of Wednesday, Wilson has posted 348 choreographed dances to her 338,2000 followers.
She has created freestyle dance numbers for her sister’s dance club in Texas, called Free Style Dance Studio, where she coaches young children.
Knox Community Hospital proudly supports the vibrant pulse of our community by sponsoring the Life & Culture section on Knox Pages, celebrating the stories and experiences that make our region unique.
