Michael Jackson Birthday Tribute: Thriller Dance Mob in Trafalgar Square

Michael Jackson Birthday Tribute: Thriller Dance Mob in Trafalgar Square

29 August, 2009
by: SpoonfedMeg

The world doesn't seem to be quite done with Michael Jackson. He still graces the front page of newspapers on a regular basis (was he murdered? Was it manslaugher? Does anyone care anymore??) and on 29 August, the birthday of the departed King of Pop, his loyal fans who haven't quite moved on gather across the globe to celebrate in their own various ways while in London's Trafalgar Square, one group coordinates a mass Thriller dance in an effort to break the world record for the most people doing the Thriller dance in one go.

I join in around noon. Festivities kicked off at 11am when the organisers arrived to coordinate the rest of the flashmob, give dance lessons for those who didn't know the steps and try to entice over 1,228 participants to join in – the required amount to break the world record of 1227 dancers set last October in Nottingham. By the time I work my way into the depths of the tourist-entrenched crowd, I'm just in time for a final lesson to make sure everyone knows the dance, or can at the very least effectively mimic a zombie. There aren't more than five hundred or so dancers so the group will be well off the record mark but as we draw closer to the 1pm start time, the event becomes less about the world record and more about simply having a great time with the classic dance.

The final performance, complete with music, was a fairly spectacular effort given the complexity for the dance and the occasional interruption by confused tourists. Although the London participants didn't achieve the world record they were aiming for, I'm sure the King of Pop would have appreciated the birthday tribute.

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SpoonfedMeg