Skip to main content

Fans Flocking to Michael Jackson's Music, Dance







22 July 2009

Since Michael Jackson's death in June, tributes to the pop singer have been coming in all shapes and forms. And his signature "Thriller" dance act has experienced a spike in popularity, with hundreds of fans signing up for the "Thrill The World" event this fall, a simultaneous performance of the dance by groups around the world. VOA visited Joe's Movement Emporium near Washington DC, where dozens of Jackson devotees attended a "Thriller" class to practice for the event.

Dance students learn Michael Jackson's steps from the Thriller' video
Dance students learn Michael Jackson's steps from the 'Thriller' video
Michael Jackson's 1983 "Thriller" has been described as the most successful music video of all time.

A quarter of a century after its release, the song, and its dance routine, still speak to music lovers worldwide.

So when a student at Joe's Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, Maryland, asked for a special class to teach the dance, artistic director Brooke Kidd jumped at the idea.

"There are a couple steps where you need to understand some timing and weight shift," Kidd said. "But overall the movements are available to anybody."







Almost 60 people attended the class, getting tips from Kidd as they followed an online tutorial breaking down the dance into easy-to-follow segments.

Rumi and Harper are learning dance steps together
Rumi and Harper are learning dance steps together
Rumi spent her childhood watching Michael Jackson's iconic moves, and wanted to pass them on to her daughter Harper. "She's a fantastic dancer, but I grew up in the 80s and just wanted to learn the dance, and we thought it would be fun together," Rumi said.

Even dancers like 16-year-old Maya, born a decade after "Thriller"'s release, wanted to honor the King of Pop. "I decided to come to pay a tribute to Michael Jackson's death, I feel like everybody should somewhere, so I just wanted to pay my respects as a dancer," she said.

They haven't quite perfected each step, but they have plenty of time to practice before October's "Thrill The World," when these dancers will join thousands of others in a dozen countries to break the record of the largest number of people performing "Thriller" at the same time.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese

Identifying someone in Indonesia as a member of the Chinese ( orang Tionghoa ) ethnic group is not an easy matter, because physical characteristics, language, name, geographical location, and life-style of Chinese Indonesians are not always distinct from those of the rest of the population. Census figures do not record Chinese as a special group, and there are no simple racial criteria for membership in this group. There are some people who are considered Chinese by themselves and others, despite generations of intermarriage with the local population, resulting in offspring who are less than one-quarter Chinese in ancestry. On the other hand, there are some people who by ancestry could be considered halfChinese or more, but who regard themselves as fully Indonesian. Furthermore, many people who identify themselves as Chinese Indonesians cannot read or write the Chinese language. Alth...

ASEAN pushes for resumption of N. Korea nuke talks

ASEAN and friends: Foreign Ministers from left, Vietnam's Pham Gia Khiem, South Korea's Kim Sung-hwan, Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto, Indonesia's Marty Natalegawa, and China's Yang Jiechi, hold hands during a group photo at the opening session of ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday. (AP/Dita Alangkara) Associated Press, Nusa Dua | Thu, 07/21/2011 2:19 PM Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations are calling for a speedy resumption of talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia had been negotiating since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle the program in exchange for aid and other concessions. The North pulled out of the talks about two years ago after being censured for launching a long-range rocket. It has indicated a willingness in recent months to return to the table. The 10-member Association of Southeast As...