A group of amateur dancers thrilled shoppers when they performed their version of Michael Jackson’s zombie filled hit Thriller.
About 20 performers broke out into a dance at Intercity Shopping Centre on Saturday. Dancers between the ages of eight and 18 dressed in zombie make up and performed classic Jackson moves from the song’s music video as well as the famous moonwalk.
Faith Russell, a student at Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute, said she’s never received any formal training but has loved to dance since she was seven years old. At one point in the dance, Faith took centre stage and performed a few free-style moves.
For that brief moment, she imagined she was the King of Pop, she said.
“I just went with the music and whatever came up,” Faith said. “It’s hard to explain because I haven’t had formal training so it’s hard to know the terminology for it. But (the dance) is how I feel at the moment especially since it’s a Michael Jackson (dance). I tried to be MJ.”
Russell performed at the So You Think You Got Talent Canada competition last year and from there was asked to join the dancing studio Bounce Productions. She said she hoped to keep dancing and maybe one day go to school for it.
Stephanie Depiero, a director with Bounce, said the dancers had about a week to prepare for the performance. She said the flash mob style performing gives the dancers a different experience because the audience is all around them instead of just in front of them.
“This was different than just dancing on a stage because it was a public venue,” Depiero said. “I took the basic signature moves that everybody would know like the claw hands and that type of stuff and used that and incorporated some of my own style and choreography. I think they did awesome.”
Depiero added that there could be future flash mobs around Christmas time.
