Student story: Alexander the great (dancer)

By Ali Swee

Adrenaline pumping. Arms flailing. All vying to be the best.

Fist pumping, metal-thrashing music pulsates through the bass speakers. Heads bob along with the beat.

Middle school Diversity Discovery student and Tupac-inspiried Alexander Peoples steps onto the dance floor. His head slams. His hands twist, forming a perfect air guitar. And the crowd goes wild.

“I had never done rock before, but everybody screamed for me,” Peoples said in his confident, yet casual demeanor.

Before the competition, Peoples was “super nervous.”

“At first, all the people looked better, but everyone clapped for me because I was in middle school,” he said.

Little did he know he had been training for this for years. Appearing in many plays in his hometown of Belair, Kan., Peoples also garners his stage presence from the swagger of MTV, VH1 and BET legends.

After the nerves diffused, Peoples was shocked to hear his name announced in the final three. It was now down to TechnoTeam, Kurt Steinke and Peoples. Peoples continued his champion moves.

Final two. Peoples and Steinke. The song “Tootsee Roll” by the 69 Boyz blared. Inside, Peoples cheered. And Steinke choked.

“Kurt didn’t know how to Tootsee Roll,” Peoples smirked. “So I pushed him out of the way. “

His Diversity Discovery teacher Pat Hudgins quiped, “He threw it down.”

And he did. As the cameras flashed, Peoples prevailed.

The final vote came down to applause. “Maybe 13 people clapped for Steinke,” Peoples said. The crowd overwhelmingly chose Peoples, who described his performance as nothing less than “excellent.”

It was his 20th trophy. Nineteen others from wrestling, football, basketball, baseball and karate. He lifted the trophy over his head, smiling with pride. A momentous moment in any boy’s life.

Robyn O’Connell Tatum, camp mother, told Peoples he should get his name engraved on it. So he will.

“Everyone wanted to touch it,” he said, his eyes rolling as he described the perils of fame. “We got all the girls.”

As his fellow Diversity Discovery student and friend,Anthony Leeks later told him, “ If I got that big trophy I would be using it to get all the ladies.”

What lady would he want to attract with the new addition to his trophy case? “Nicki Minaj,” Peoples practically drools. “She is so hot.”

But if he can’t get Minaj, he can happily settle for the girls of Flint Hills Publication Workshop.

“When we got back to our room, we stayed up late talking about the girls we danced with,” he said.

For dance inspiration, Peoples looks to the New Boyz, Michael Jackson, Lil Wayne, Biggie Smalls, Easy E, Ice Cube and LL Cool J.

“The annoying part was all the cameras,” He sighs, dramatically. “They took so many pictures of me. I can still barely see.”

And now, like the stars he idolizes, he’s experiencing taste of the paparazzi. And the endless burdens of fame.

Ali Swee is a junior at Notre Dame de Sion High School and a student in the advanced writing class at the Flint Hills Publications Workshop.