Watch Missy Elliott Bring Music Video Star Alyson Stoner on Stage for ‘Work It’

Missy Elliott surprised everyone at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The 2019 Video Vanguard Award winner brought out actress and dancer Alyson Stoner to reprise her famous dance from the original “Work It” video, shocking fans at home and in the arena.

At the end of the 2003 “Work It” video, a then-10-year-old Stoner was seen dancing with pigtails to the hip-hop hit. Sixteen years later, Stoner put on a yellow track suit to show off how many slick dance moves she has learned in that time.

Elliott performed a seven-song medley of her hits, running through “Throw It Back,” “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” “Hot Boyz,” “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” “Pass That Dutch” and “Lose Control.”

After the performances, Elliott received the award from presenter Cardi B.

“I promised I wouldn’t cry this time because I cry at every awards. But this Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award means so much to me,” Elliott told the crowd, notes PEOPLE.

She later added, “I’ve worked diligently for over two decades and I never thought that I would be standing up here receiving this award, so it means so much to me. I promise y’all, it don’t go unnoticed the support and love you’d showed to me over the years.”

Elliott then gave a shout-out to other performers, including Peter Gabriel, Busta Rhymes, Madonna and Michael Jackson.

“Lastly, I want to dedicate this to the dance community all around the world. Because when you get on the stage with these artists … y’all are not just props,” Elliott said. “Y’all are the beat to the heart.”

On Friday, Elliott released Iconology, her first collection of new songs since her 2005 album The Cookbook. She even referred to the VMAs in the track “Throw It Back.”

Elliott has seven VMAs, including Video of the Year for “Work It.” She also appeared on the track “Lady Marmalade,” which won the 2001 Video of the Year prize.

As for Stoner, 26, she is best known for her work on the Disney Channel as a child actor and appeared in three videos for Elliott as a dancer. She starred in three of the Step Up movies as Camille. She is now releasing her music independently, including the February single “Stripped Bare.” In the video, she showed herself getting her hair shaved.

“Shaving my head is an act of mental health and confidence, not self-destruction,” she told PEOPLE in a February interview. “I can’t tell you how many beliefs and opinions and insecurities fell to the floor with every tuft of hair, and I’m leaving them there. I’m shedding one era and rising as a new being in real time.”

Stoner also posts inspirational videos on her YouTube page, where she has 596,000 subscribers. She also has almost 850,000 Instagram followers and more than 335,000 followers on Twitter.

Photo credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images