Warsaw Community High School and Debra Colliers School of Dance dance students, parents and siblings participated in a dance flash mob Thursday night. The flash mob was inside Martin’s Supermarket in Warsaw in the produce section and salad bar area. The flash mob was in honor of National Dance Week, which is today through Thursday. A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place to perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time. They then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire and artistic expression. The flash mob is meant to surprise passerbys. The participants including 65 Warsaw Community High School dance students and 15 students, parents and siblings from Debra Colliers School of Dance. They danced during the flash mob to a collaboration of Carly Rae Jepsen’s and Owl City’s song “Good Time.” Students who participated in the flash mob commented on the experience. William Kois, a sophomore at WCHS, said it was his second time for participating in a flash mob. He participated in the flash mob last May in downtown Warsaw during First Friday. “I like dancing because it doesn’t judge, doesn’t take any person or kind of people, it’s universal, an art and speaks to people in different ways,” Kois said. Jodie Irwin, a WCHS junior, said it was her first time for participating in a flash mob. “All of our timing had to be the same, and the fact that you cat get so many people to do the same thing with their own touch is part of doing a flash mob,” Irwin said. Megan Vixler, a WCHS freshman, said she enjoyed doing the flash mob. “I enjoyed working together with a bunch of people and performing in front of others who we surprised,” Vixler said. The high school students have been working on preparing for the dance during class time each day since they returned from spring break. Debra Colliers School students and participants had five-hour practices on Saturday afternoons beginning in March at the dance school. This is the second year for the collaboration flash mob. Courtney Brown, dance teacher at Warsaw Community High School, organized Thursday’s flash mob and danced with the other participants. As part of her dance students’ grades, all Brown’s students participated in the flash mob. “I hope students and dancers come away with confidence in themselves to do anything they want to,” Brown said. Brown said the flash mob was a good project for dance students because it taught spatial awareness, teamwork, organization, dependability and the chance for error or thinking quickly on their feet. A brief video of the flash mob appears on the Times-Union Website at www.timesuniononline.com
