thrill the world 2008

Yesterday my friend Nickey (pictured above) and I woke up early, got dolled up as the undead and rode our bikes to the Rose City Rollers Hangar at Oak's Park. We used cornstarch to give us the look of the dead complexion, lots of black eyeshadow for the "we haven't slept in a thousand years" (because we're dead) eyes and a mixture of corn syrup and red food coloring for the "i've been eating brains all day" fake blood. 

We cruised down the east bank esplanade, argh-raring at all the saturday morning joggers and cyclists we could. (Our responses were varied, some folks laughed, some rolled their eyes, some seemed oblivious to the fact that zombies had taken over the Springwater Corridor, and some even rarred right back at us..).

We arrived at Oak's Park just in time to do one final practice run of the thriller dance before the real deal. After we registered, one of the organizers had us get into our positions for the dance. "Just remember," she yelled, "you will be dancing with thousands of people all over the world." 

This event was part of an international movement called Thrill the World. Apparently some woman from Toronto decided she wanted to learn the thriller dance. Then she decided that she wanted to teach it to as many people as possible. Then she decided to try and beat the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of people doing the thriller dance at the same time. For more information, go to www.thrilltheworld.com.

All dancers and audience members paid $5. The event was a benefit for the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC). The actual dance is 6 minutes long. We started at 11am, the event was over by 11:15.

To see a video of me doing the dance, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXO10kv6rw. I am the 3rd zombie from the right. This event happens every year, in cities all over the world. The dance is really fun (and surprisingly easy) to learn. I encourage anyone that has a little bit of zombie dancer in them to try it out.