Thriller the Event

Photo by Michael R.L. Kern
Resident assistants Ashleigh Strange and Liza Krauszer demonstrate some moves of the “Thriller” Dance in the Hess Rec Center on Saturday during an informational meeting about the “Thrill the World” event, which will hopefully break a world record of people simultaneously dancing around the world.

When it was released on November 30, 1982 by Epic Records, nobody expected Michael Jackson’s new song to rise as a hit, both domestically and internationally, and become a cross-cultural phenomenon 25 years later. “Thriller” was released, both as a single and an album, and both did well in the Billboard Hot 100, although no one could have predicted the bright ideas of Ines Markeljevic.

In October 2005, on the scene of the Landmark Forum, Markeljevic was reading an article that was about a mass of people doing the Thriller Dance in Dundas Square. Later, it was discovered that the mass performance didn’t actually occur. She later said, “Phew! Glad I didn’t miss it.” That dance of the Thriller didn’t happen, but Markeljevic became obsessed with making it happen, with a vision on the scale of a worldwide movement.

Fast forward. Oct. 11, 2008. Resident Assistants Ashleigh Strange and Liza Krauszer meet with curious parties in the Hess Recreation Center where they began laying out their plans to join in on the event. People, curious about the commotion and colorful posters around campus, as well as promotion on Facebook, were brought in to sign up for participation.

“This is going to be a really big thing that I hope unites the whole university. Even if you’re not a student, you can still participate,” Strange said, as she reviewed signatures.

With 28 individuals signed up and publicity for the event growing worldwide, it could be that Thrill the World is well on its way to breaking the current simultaneous dance record of 197,569 dancers. There are 95 cities around the world participating this year and the international organizers have confidence that this will be the record-breaking year.

The dance will be taught to participants from 2–5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18. During this time, new participants are welcome to sign up. The event will take place Saturday, Oct. 25 at 10:00 a.m. in the Student Recreation Center.