To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Thrill the World was born– an attempt to have as many dancers doing a six-minute Zombie dance routine to Michael Jackson’s Thriller as possible. In 2006, 62 danced in Toronto. In 2007, 1722 people worldwide participated. In 2008, 4,179 participants. An official count is not in for this year yet, but judging by the number of zombies right here in Santa Rosa at Montgomery H.S. yesterday, I am sure the record was shattered.
Thrill the World 2009 in Santa Rosa was organized by Gina Melvin, the dance teacher at Montgomery and Hip Hop instructor at the YMCA. We learned the choreography online and at workshops that she put on over the past few weeks. Then at 4:00, we gathered at Montgomery on a beautiful warm October afternoon in shredded clothes to apply some truly lovely makeup. We had to follow a strict sign-in process in order to submit accurate numbers.
At 5:30 pm the countdown began! It was really hard, when I was learning, to make my body move in a proper “undead” fashion, not to mention keep the smile off my face! But once in this combined group of teens and adults that came together to perform after hours of practice, I got into character no problem. Being surrounded by all the fantastic costumes, hair and makeup really helped.
When it was over, we cheered and hugged and then drove home– hoping to avoid stares from neighboring cars at the stoplights. It was so fun and I can’t wait to do it next year!
Local Zumba instructors Monica Anderson, Monica Smith and Nicole Pope were spotted at the event. And of course there were friends from Zumba at the YMCA– pretty much the whole front row. I loved learning the dance with them and performing together. And their costumes were the best!
YouTube vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FGq1i2PHbQ
or from the rooftop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSkRljtYZ78