Saturday Matinee

I was introduced to a new phrase today. A “flash mob” as defined by Wikipedia is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.

Coincidentally, yesterday I had discovered the website of Improv Everywhere, an improv group in NY. I’d heard about their actions before (such as their “No Pants” experiment on the NY subway) but my personal favorite is Look Up More where they got 50+ people to stealthily infiltrate every window in a building overlooking Union Square Park in Manhattan and do a choreographed dance. It immediately reminded me of the iPod commercials, a while back, where a listener with iPod headphones walks by a bunch of iPod posters, in which there are shadowed dancers in each poster, dancing their hearts out.

All the secret agents, in black, are in position and ready to dance. Photos from Improv Everywhere.

My favorite though, were the solos: all the people point to the guy on the upper right window, who’s dancing his heart out.

The appeal of a flash mob most likely resides in the fact that people who participate enjoy being in the know. Being an insider and being included is a powerful thing. The appeal of the audience watching these performance art pieces is the pull of the curiosity of wondering what the big secret is, and wanting to be an insider as well.

Now I’m not the biggest fan of performance art, because much of what I’ve seen hasn’t been very good. It’s neither engaging nor entertaining. This project though, is not only entertaining, delightful, surprising, unexpected, hilarious, and creative, but it also has a point.

Isn’t that the basis of any good choreography?

On a side note, I’d like to suggest the Macy’s building in Union Square in San Francisco as a great site for a dance flash mob. We’d get a great crowd on a Saturday afternoon, targeting the tourists and the shoppers in Union Square.

Click on Look Up More for video footage as well.