Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Thriller-ettes, Run Amok!

I haven't written much here lately, but I have been busy, creatively speaking! And, the women who have been being creative with me? They have all run amok!

It began in August 2009 when I invited my Jazzercise classmates to join me in learning how to do the dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."  A handful of women said they'd like to learn with me, so we spent September and October learning the steps. On Saturday, October 31, 2009 --- Halloween --- we performed it for the class and we recorded it. (Love the technology!) We had so much fun, which is evident from the film and I thought, "Well, that is that!"

In spring of this year, I suggested we might want to practice so we don't forget everything we learned and that we might want to video record it again. They were in agreement, so off we went every Thursday evening, a half hour before Jazzercise class, into a small room with the ipod, practicing the steps.

It was along about May that we began to discuss costumes. We didn't really do costumes last year, so we thought it would be fun to put something together that had a bit more style and then, the creativity kicked in. All of us would wear dresses, gloves and hats, as though we had climbed out of our coffins just to dance!(Much as any good zombie would do!)

Then came the question, 'Could we dance in a cemetery? Which cemetery?'
What a great idea! More creativity, running amok!
After looking around, I identified the Evergreen Cemetery off 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale, that had lots of the right kinds of headstones and grave markers and was really old ... established in 1910 ... so after repeated phone calls and e-mails and a meeting during an early morning thunderstorm, I obtained permission from Julius to use the Evergreen Cemetery as our "set."

Since all of us work outside the home, finding a time when we could all meet at the cemetery proved to be a bit challenging, but finally we did identify a Tuesday in early October that would work, so meet, we did! We performed it twice for the camcorder (Thanks to my darling husband who was the camera and sound guy!) and drew a small audience from the street. (Is this how movie stars feel when they're shooting "on location?")

Having never uploaded anything to YouTube, it took my dh and I a little time to figure it all out, but a few days ago we were finally successful in posting it to YouTube.


Many of our friends have viewed it and the feedback has been positive ... we're funny ... it was fun ... we're fearless ... AND, we can dance! I find it to be so joyful when people enjoy what we've done and I think my fellow zombies agree.

So, there you have it.
It takes a good bit of creative energy to put together something like this, so that's why I haven't been writing on my blog so much lately. But, I have definitely been creative and I've found others, like me, who share the spirit and have enjoyed running amok with me!

We'll be performing for the final time this year at 7:30 PM on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at the Wicked Manors Halloween Street Party in Wilton Manors. If you're in the neighborhood, come by and watch us, live! Talk about "Creativity Run Amok!"