Michael Still Thrilling

The St. Petersburg Times featured a story about a world-wide event where local people performed Thriller at the Pier in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Saturday, October 24, 2009. Excited, I, a 52 year old grandmother of six, decided I was going.

I was torn in my personal feelings about Michael Jackson. I am embarrassed to admit there are times I tend to fall for media hype if it is relentless enough. I leaned toward his guilt, even though I lack authority to do so. Even if he wasn’t guilty of what he was accused, he certainly was weirdly eccentric. What was completely clear, where there was no confusion whatsoever, was his talent. Zero. Michael Jackson’s dance moves and music have thrilled me since the Jackson Five. My children and I felt compelled to pretend to dance like Jackson whenever Billy Jean, Beat it, I’m Bad and Thriller played through the 80’s.

The event featured in Times was sponsored by Thrill The World, an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson's “Thriller.” The event is intended to raise money for charity and break the current record in the Guinness Book of World Records. Thrill the World, the brainchild of Ines Markeljevic, a Canadian dance instructor and choreographer. Markeljevic believed there was going to be a large “Thriller” dance after reading the 2005 headline in a local newspaper, “Thriller at Dundas Square.” After learning she was wrong, Markeljevic decided to undertake the daunting task of trying to create a record to beat. In 2006, 62 people in a community center created the first world record with only 2 hours of training.

Thrill the World was born in 2007, with over 1,700 people in 52 cities and 5 continents participated, breaking the 2006 record. 2008 brought 4,179 dancers, breaking the record of the year before.

I posted my excitement on Facebook. Surely someone would want to go with me. Didn’t everyone try to learn the moonwalk in their socks in the kitchen in the 80’s? My grandchildren were busy. I asked a friend. “Not my thing,” he replied. My mind was made up to go by myself if necessary.

So, on October 24, 2009, at 7:00 p.m., despite a fear of going downtown at night and finding parking, armed with a jacket, tissue, camera, extra batteries and Mace, I headed downtown to watch. I expected it to be an exciting night.

I was not disappointed. Arriving a little after 7:30 p.m., I saw 200 people, mainly children, dressed in ghoulish attire, lined up on the median of the street leading to the Pier. Police on large sleek dark horses kept the crowd, consisting of several hundred people, in line and off the street. An adult-sized zombie shadowed the edge of the crowd, making sure there were none of the living straggled onto the street.

Finally, there was a countdown of the participants. 200 out of 400 people attended, slightly disappointing, but still exciting. Then, a countdown of the last 60 seconds and….Vincent Price’s voice eerily boomed out over the ocean.

The entire song lasted between 4 and 6 minutes. It was a historic event in the year of Michael Jackson’s death and I was an unrecorded part of it.

The 2009 statistics are 22,596 dance participants in 32 countries. Expected media reports were greatly exaggerated by anticipating 250,000. This event seems to be the kind that gains momentum slowly, like a boulder rolling down a large craggy mountain.
I’m learning the dance. I plan on being one more for next year.

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