Most 12-year-olds would jump at the opportunity to dance with Justin Bieber, but Maesi Caes has already crossed that off her bucket list — and continues to thrive. Recently, a video of the preteen slaying her signature move, the "Whack Back," received hundreds of thousands of views, with regrams rippling across Instagram's dance community. The video was a regram to commemorate the post's one-year anniversary. It first went viral last October with over 1.7 million views.

Maesi is a seventh grader from Altoona, Iowa, who began dancing at age 3. In January 2016, when she was 10, producers of the reality TV show Dance Moms discovered her YouTube (quite like the Biebs himself) and Instagram, which had about 35,000 followers at the time thanks to videos featuring her dance skills, flexibility, tricks, and photos of her modeling gigs. (She's modeled for numerous clothing, dancewear, and footwear lines.)

On Dance Moms, Maesi developed a reputation for her killer hip-hop moves, including her signature "Whack Back," a move in which she jumps up and lands on the floor, balancing solely on her palms, as she opens her legs into a split and thrusts her feet behind her head. (If this sounds superhuman, it's because it basically is.)

Maesi first whipped out this trick about a year and a half ago, according to her mother, Jaime. (Although Jaime says her daughter has always been extremely flexible, she's improved thanks to hard work: Maesi practices gymnastics, where she's improved her range of motion and mastered front walkovers, backflips, back tucks, and more.)



One night last October, after a day of Dance Moms filming, Maesi stayed late at the Abby Lee Dance Company in Los Angeles for a dance class. Jaime filmed Maesi's now-viral dance combo, and when they posted it on Maesi's Instagram that night, it blew up almost instantly, Jaime says.



"Maesi was new to the whole LA scene and had not been on Dance Moms that long," said Jaime of her daughter's viral moment. "She's truly the most humble, sweetest young lady you will ever meet in your life. She was overwhelmed and truly felt so blessed."

She later danced with Justin Bieber in concert on his Purpose Tour, as well as Silento, who's known for the nae nae.



Of course Maesi's just 12, so her storied career is far from peaking: She'd still like to star in a movie, dance on tour, and make a name for herself as a choreographer. Look for her name in lights. 🙌

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Elizabeth Narins Senior fitness and health editor Elizabeth Narins is a Brooklyn, NY-based writer and a former senior editor at Cosmopolitan.com , where she wrote about fitness, health, and more.

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