Camp Rock

star Demi Lovato recreates her dance moves from the 2008 Disney Channel movie in a nostalgic new social media video. Directed by Matthew Diamond, the family musical takes place at a music camp for gifted teens, chronicling the journey of Mitchie Torres (Lovato), a kitchen worker, as she embraces her inner stardom and bonds with teen pop idol Shane Gray (Joe Jonas). Camp Rock, which also stars Nick and Kevin Jonas, Alyston Stoner, and Maria Canals-Barrera, remains a memorable Disney Channel hit in large part due to its songs, including Lovato’s climactic “This Is Me.”

In a recent video posted on Instagram, Lovato recreates the knee-jerking dance she does during Camp Rock‘s “This Is Me” song while at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The video sees the star doing the dance in several locations around the park, including on a main pedestrian path and in front of a line of storm troopers from the Star Wars section of the attraction. “Couldn’t go to Disney without doing the dis-knees,” Lovato writes in her caption. Check out her post below:

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What Camp Rock Meant For Demi Lovato

How It Marked A New Era For Her Career

Lovato had been an actor for several years prior to Camp Rock, with her most prominent work being Barney & Friends. It is the 2008 Disney Channel movie, however, that marks her big break. The film, which premiered directly on the Disney Channel as a TV movie, may not have earned glowing reviews from critics, but it was a major hit with viewers. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Camp Rock drew a strong 8.9 million viewers on its Friday night premiere, which made it, at the time, the second most watched Disney Channel movie ever behind High School Musical 2 (2007).

For Lovato, Camp Rock was an important stepping stone for her acting career, and she ended up reprising her role as Mitchie alongside the Jonas Brothers in Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam in 2010. The 2008 film also resulted in Lovato getting her very own Disney Channel show in 2009 in the form of Sonny with a Chance, which ran until 2011. Most importantly, though, Camp Rock paved the way for Lovato’s career as a musical artist, which would become (and remains) her primary focus.

Our Take On Lovato’s Camp Rock Throwback Video

The Disney Channel Movie Came At A Unique Time

The mid-2000s remains a special time and arguably a golden era for the Disney Channel, with shows like Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, among others, all running during this time. Camp Rock felt like a part of this moment for Disney, and, along with the High School Musical movies, marks a bygone era.

Even if Camp Rock may not be a movie that older viewers revisit particularly often, it has resurfaced in meme form in recent years due to some of its campier elements. It’s fun to see Lovato leaning into her Disney Channel history and poking fun at her dance moves all these years later, especially now that she’s largely left this kind of Disney Channel programming behind as an artist.

Source: Demi Lovato