Susan James of Redmond is among the organizers of a Seattle Thrillers event to be held in Seattle and counted towards a world record attempt for the “Largest Simultaneous Thriller Dance” on Saturday, Oct. 25 (or Sunday, Oct. 26, in other parts of the world).
“Zombies” will gather in cities all over the world to perform the dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video at the exact same time. The local event will take place in downtown Seattle at 11:00 a.m. on Oct. 25.
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video was released on Dec. 2, 1983 and was directed by John Landis. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the music video’s release.
Along with James, Amy Burgess of West Seattle and Melissa Habeck of Green Lake formed Seattle Thrillers as a non-profit organization with the goal of teaching people how to dance “The Thriller Dance” so they can perform it for the “Thrill The World” event in October and for other local events, charities and parties.
“I’ve wanted to learn the ‘Thriller’ dance for the past 25 years,” James explained, “but I didn’t have any dance experience and didn’t know where to start. After hearing about the ‘Thrill The World’ project and how easy the dance is to learn, I thought, ‘What am I waiting for? Let’s do the damn thing!’ The response from the community has been incredible!”
Within days of announcing Seattle Thrillers, James, Burgess and Habeck had over 200 people join their online group which organizes and publicizes rehearsals.
“Our first rehearsal in August had over 30 men and women of all ages, many of whom had never danced as a group before. By the end of the rehearsal everyone was dancing, laughing and enjoying themselves. It was fantastic,” said James.
She said the “Thriller” dance is easy to learn. It usually takes an hour to become familiar with the individual steps and another hour to put them together into the routine. The “Thrill The World” Web site has free online videos that teach the dance and Seattle Thrillers is hosting local rehearsals in Seattle and on the Eastside.
“We plan on hosting rehearsals every week between now and October 25th and it is never too late to jump in and learn the ‘Thriller’ dance with us,” said James.
In addition to building community and having a great time, Seattle Thrillers is using the project as an opportunity to raise money for ROOTS (Rising out of the Shadows) which is a homeless shelter for teens and young adults in the University District of Seattle.
For more information regarding Seattle Thrillers, contact Susan James at (425) 985-9076 or e-mail ttw08seattlethrillers@gmail.com.
The Web site is http://SeattleThrillers.com.
The ROOTS Website is http://www.rootsinfo.org/
Event ID number is 2044.
