I was fooling around with my iphone one afternoon when I decided to google and type flash mob for no apparent reason. It led me to several flash mobs across the world where people were dancing to Michael Jackson's Beat It or Thriller in celebration of what would be his 51st birthday. It was heart warming at best watching everyone in the streets dancing using the same routines that made the King of Pop what he is today. You see them, young and old doing that "deck-of-card" routine with their right hands which was so cool back then and still look good today.
Then You Tube being as it is, led me from one type of flash mob to another. The freeze frame (not flash mob) at a supermarket in Manchester had me laughing hard at the comments. It ranges from "freaky" to "50 people just completed the world record for not blinking". Then you have the MC Hammer "U can't touch this" mob at a store in LA, Sunset Boulevard, where suddenly, these people appeared in Hammer's trademark gold 'you-can-stuff-ten-live-chickens-in-'em pants. After like a few minutes, they disappeared as suddenly as they came. It was epic! Well, the comments from TheYULiberator sums it all best "Holy shit that was awesome where's they a...hey where'd all our inventory go?" LOL.
The afternoon wore off with me glued to my iphone. Then I came across teacher's flash mobs across the US. It was fun watching all these teachers performing in front of their unsuspecting students during assemblies, pep rallies, half time matches, and such. While going through clip after clip of videos, I discovered something vaguely familiar in their routines and song selections. I don't know. Maybe in one of their annual meetings or so, all the high school principals were ordered by the ministry to organise flash mobs at their respective schools. Something about getting together and embracing the school spirit etc.
What got me though is, like I said, the routines and song selection. The workout was at best, repetitive because a school in the west coast will have the same move as a school on the other end of the country.
Anyway, nevermind about the choreography, I'd like to applaud the song selections though. Most of them would have these amongst others in their playlist:
Katy Perry - Firework
LMFAO - Party Rock
Taio Cruz - Dynamite
Beyonce - Single Ladies
But my personal favourite is St Charles North teachers' flash mob. It's not exactly perfect sync-wise, and the students didn't really jump up and start dancing on the bleachers but I guess from the appreciative cheers that followed when group after group of teachers ran to join the few on the court speaks for itself . They started off with Dynamite, Poker Face and a slew of today's hits. Of course the whole gym hit the roof when after a half millisecond lull, We no Speak Americano's catchy tune came on and they broke into yet a new dance routine.
Again, it was heart warming watching them dancing to the tune of today's generation. The younger ones would still be clubbing and raving so it's easier for them. It's the older ones who have longed since abandoned their tea-dance days, that took the effort and time away from families and tight schedules to help put these together that deserved to be applauded. They must have sacrificed a lot, just to bring a smile to their students' faces. Most detractors would say they're just humiliating themselves and that they stooped so low to be accepted by today's youth. But then again, we beg to differ. I mean if I were part of that group, I would be proud of myself. So what if I've gained a butt the size of Alaska after all those years "moulding the future of the nation". If it's time to wiggle it, I would.
I'm just wondering if on the teaching application form in future, it would include 'able to dance' as one of the criteria apart from my impressive degree-with-merit in Human and Social Biology. But from the videos uploaded, I can see that all of them were having fun doing it and whether they chose to believe it or not, perhaps their objectives to come together and embrace the school spirit would've already gotten them a big red A+ to boot.
