Learn the Thriller!

How awesome is this?! My husband is just great! I was telling him last night about the post I just did on Micheal Jackson's Thriller video. Of course, the conversation turned to one of my favorite movies - 13 Going on 30 - in which Jennifer Garner's character starts a club-wide breakout dance of none other than the Thriller. Just too cool. I wanted to be her in that scene. I think I've told him several times how much I'd love to be able to do that dance! (Poor guy has been great in putting up with me watching that movie over and over...)

Anyway, somehow, today he sent me a text message to check out this web site, www.thrilltheworld.com. I never even suspected the connection to our conversation last night. Anyway, when I checked it out, guess what it was? Apparently, there is a woman, Ines Markeljevic, who is working to score the Guinness Record for the Largest Thriller Dance. See the excerpt from the site below:

Ines Markeljevic and team organized an attempt at a Guinness World Record for the Largest Thriller Dance in Toronto, Canada. From that came a plan to take this project global in 2007, under the name Thrill The World.
62 people danced Michael Jackson's Thriller to set the first Guinness World Record for Largest Thriller Dance. They learned & performed the 5-minute version of the music video choreography in one afternoon! Many of the participants were not formally trained dancers.

This year, there are 7 registered dance events in Canada, 2 in France, 8 in Ireland, 5 in the UK, and 50 in the US! There are also one each in New Zeland, The Netherlands, Sierra Leone, Sweden, Croatia, Finland, and Honduras.

Thrill the World points out that Thriller is the ultimate Halloween song, and it makes sense that the world record would be done at (or around) the holiday. They say:

What is Thrill The World? Thrill The World is a worldwide event that will set a NEW record for Largest Simultaneous Thriller Dance with the "Record Holders Republic" (RHR). Thousands of people in cities around the world will learn the “Thriller” dance and perform it at the exact same time on October 27/ 28, 2007. If you’ve ever seen the music video and thought, “I wish I could do that!” – this year, you will.
Why “Thriller”?
2007 marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the “Thriller” album. Twenty-five years later it is still a popular and well-known video that crosses boundaries of language, culture, and geography. We believe that this is largely due to the amazing choreography --- do the “roar” move anywhere, at any point, and without fail someone will yell, “Thriller” because the movements are so iconic and easily recognizable.
Best of all… “Thriller” is an easy dance to learn, when taught the way TTW teaches it.
We could do the Chicken Dance, or Hokey-Pokey, or the Macarena for a Guinness World Record… yes. But when Halloween rolls around, and you’re out at your Halloween party, you know “Thriller” will come on at midnight. And this year, you can have a Movie-Moment when people you don’t know join you on the dance floor to do this ‘thrilling’ dance!

Why is “Thriller” so popular? What is it about “Thriller” that makes people like it?
1. Michael Jackson. Need we say more? Okay, well here’s more…
2. Zombies always have and always will be cool!
3. Dance always has and always will be cool! So when you put those two things together…!
4. A sick bass beat always help make a song popular. It gets locked in your head!
5. Let’s not forget that this music video was revolutionary for it’s time (and is still unparalleled today!). The first video that was a mini-movie, not just shots of the performer, well, performing on stage!
6. The special effects were quite scary and still scare the kids I show the video to today!
7. And lastly, it became a Halloween party staple song. Since Halloween shows up on the calendar every year, we are guaranteed to hear the song at LEAST ONCE a year for many a Halloween to come… and that’s not a bad thing.

If you're interested in learning, there's a set of videos available on Youtube - unfortunatley it's broken down into 40 videos, but most of them are only about 3 minutes. The first video is an intro, but after that they're pretty much all instructional or review. I checked out the first 13 or so, and the way Ines breaks it down and gives all the moves words instead of just counts makes it pretty easy - even for someone like me who gets easily confused! She even makes sure to teach is very slowly, and directs you as the viewer so you don't get confused mirroring her movements (backwards) on the TV. (Can you tell that I'm working to learn it myself!?) Below is just the first of the set of 40 videos - but if you're interested in learning the dance, this is a great way to do it!

Even though the Thrill the World event is scheduled for this weekend, Halloween comes once a year, so if you don't think you can make it this year, go ahead and learn it! You never know when it might be a neat thing to know, and hey, there's always next year!

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Learn the Thriller!

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