In this video from 2017, Merrick Hanna, a 12-year-old dancer with a unique style of dance, shows off his robotic moves. After auditioning for America’s Got Talent , the youngster received praise from the judges and audience and was even told by Simon that his performance was one of the best dances he’s seen on the show.
Merrick Hanna is a 12-year old dance enthusiast. Traditionally, hip-hop dance styles are expressive and capable of conveying multiple levels of emotion. This dance style is difficult for professional dancers to master. Young Merrick, however, got on stage in front of the judges and crowd to audition for America’s Got Talent. He was nervous but also excited to perform.
By the end of his performance, you can see members of the audience were in tears. Simon, who is notorious for being harsh on even the youngest of auditioners, told Merrick, “This to me was honestly one of the best dance performances I’ve ever seen on the show.” You could see the boy’s eyes light up from the praise and response from the crowd.
Inspired by his grandmother, who, despite her age, still takes four dance classes a week, Merrick began practicing an interesting method of hip-hop dancing. As he described it, he “moves like a robot” and tells a story while he’s on the stage. Hanna had already previously established his dancing career, having performed in commercials and auditioned previously for America’s Got Talent. Despite this, he was nervous and excited as he prepared for his performance.
While there was obvious skepticism from the judges and the crowd, the opening notes of I Built A Friend by Alec Benjamin began playing, and all eyes were on him. Merrick moved around the stage in a jerky, robotic pattern that, as he said, did look very much robotic. What truly made the dance magical, however, was the facial expressions and body language that Merrick used to tell the story of a boy, his robot, and the robot’s demise.
When Merrick Hanna finished his performance, he received a standing ovation from the crowd and several of the judges. As the applause settled, the judges gave him plenty of feedback. One judge commented that many adults tried to perform in much the same way Merrick did without success. The entire audience felt the emotions conveyed by his performance.
His ability to draw the crowd in and truly tell a story drove his performance. As Simon pointed out, the audience could see the creation of the robot, the formation of friendship and adventure, and then felt the grief, sadness, and loss as the robot fell apart. The art of storytelling through simplistic dance moves, body language, and facial expression are necessary to well-rounded dance routines. All too often, performers fail to convey their message, focusing instead on perfecting their routine.
Merrick Hanna, however, has practiced and become a wonderful storyteller. He went on to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent, where he got eliminated. Still, he proved he is more than capable of competing with the best of them and performed additional moving dance routines throughout his run on the show. When he got eliminated, his audition video went viral on YouTube, with over 44 million views worldwide.
While Merrick may not have won America’s Got Talent, he proved to the audience and the judges that Merrick’s Got Talent. The judges all agreed, at the end of his audition, that adult performers could learn something from the way Merrick puts on a show. Members of the audience cried by the end of his performance, feeling remorse for his robotic friend.