Agasi Newmart in full regalia practices his Michael Jackson routine in his living room studio on Saturday, Aug. 12. He is a student at Kent Gardens Elementary. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
Agasi Newmart explains how he learned his Michael Jackson routine.By Shirley Ruhe
Agasi Newmart pulls on his silver glove, adjusts his black fedora and practices sliding backward across his living room studio. A line of silver sequins travels up his black pant legs and his socks sparkle with silver rhinestones. He steps up to the microphone:
“Billy Jean is not my lover……
People always told me be careful of what you do.
Don’t go around breaking young girls’ hearts. Yeeeeeeee”
Agasi is eight years old and has been working on his Michael Jackson routine for many months. He takes dancing lessons online once a week from an instructor in Georgia (not the one in the United States). Agasi says, “He had me start on tiptoes and slide backwards in place over and over and then when I got that, he had me move backwards.”
Agasi’s voice and piano instructor is his mother, Kristina Newmart, who gives lessons to students every day after school and then works with Agasi at night and on the weekends. Agasi’s sister, Eva Newmart who is a 17-year-old student at McLean High School says, “We looked everywhere to find the details of his costume. We couldn’t even find everything in Halloween costume stores.” Finally Agasi says they found most of it on Amazon.
Agasi finishes Billy Jean and moves to the piano in the corner where he sits with his feet propped on a small upside down laundry basket because they are too short to reach the floor. “Would you like to hear Bach or jazz? My favorite is Oscar Peterson.” Agasi’s hands move quickly over the keys as he concentrates on the fast moving rhythm of the jazz artist’s composition.
Agasi has just submitted a video to a competition in New York which was a video of his Michael Jackson program and a song sung in Italian. He says he should hear the results mid-September. If he wins one of the first three places he will fly to New York to perform and receive his prize. His mother says Agasi has recently won international online competitions in Russia and Spain with piano submissions of classical, jazz and sonatas.
Agasi starts playing a Bach composition. He hesitates a minute. “Sometimes I forget because I just started it 3 weeks ago.” Agasi says he has also written a couple of compositions. He explains the process; “I just start clicking and the music is very nice.” His hands move up and down the keyboard in repetitive chords. “I like it so I keep doing it until I get a piece.” Kristina says it is composed in b flat minor.
Agasi says his next Michael Jackson song will be “The Earth Song.” Kristina says it is a little depressing but Eva explains it is the perfect time right now with climate change and the emphasis on the environment. Agasi says, “I don’t know; it was just beautiful.”
When Agasi isn’t practicing and composing he likes doing musical theater and recently appeared in a local Synetic production of “Neverland,” based on Peter Pan. Eva says Agasi has also been performing at events she has organized at senior homes. “They are kind of like recitals.” And she adds, “They moved the baby grand piano for him when Agasi participated in his school’s talent contest at Kent Gardens Elementary.”
Kristina said Agasi began singing kid’s songs when he was 4. She started working with him but says, “You know boys are not like girls at that age with their attention span so we stopped for a while. I knew if I did it too early I wasn’t going to get good results.” But she says he has good musicality and perfect pitch and is very talented. He adds, “And now I play like an adult.”
When the family moved to the U.S. from Armenia seven years ago Kristina opened a studio in their home. But then Covid hit and “I thought my dreams were crushed down when I just got started.” But she was able to teach successfully online and now has the dream of finding a grant so she can teach kids for free who can’t afford to pay for lessons themselves.
And what does Agasi want to do when he grow up?
“A chef I think. I like to cook.”