Posts Tagged ‘video artists’

by Dawn Paap

The world is responding to dance more than ever, as individuals from across the globe share their love of dance publicly and through video arts.

We are finding more and more people documenting their celebrations of dance icons through dance and video, and their dances continue to resonate with Internet viewers looking to connect artistically, locally, and universally to create MORE dance.

This new social movement through dance is liberating and profound.  World records are being broken as more and more people come together to dance for a common goal–the celebration of dance.  The growing numbers speak volumes, and as we continue to learn from dance, we will continue to grow to our full potential as artists and communities.  At the end of this posting you can learn how to get involved in this new social movement and dance phenomenon and help Thrill The World by dancing with the WORLD to Michael Jackson!

Dance legends have impacted me greatly, as I see them teaching us how to connect with ourselves, others, and the world.   This week we pay tribute to Michael Jackson who continues to affect the world as seen through the arts.  Dancers and media artists have been making documented tributes to his legacy.

Michael Jackson-the King of Pop

Michael Jackson is remembered fondly for his impact on dance.  Out of the hundreds of videodances recently created to celebrate the beloved Michael Jackson, these are some of my favorites.

As a dancer, this next videodance speaks to Michael Jackson, the man who made me want to dance freestyle and hip hop every day.

Video artists have also done their part to pay tribute to Michael, as seen in this adorable video to the song ”Don’t stop til you get enough“…

Michael Jackson dance tributes continue to hit the street, as seen in this videodance tribute to Beat It done in Stockholm.

In addition to these popular songs and dance moves, there are continuous dance tributes to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  Never before has there been more ZOMBIE walks and events, as demonstrated by the zombie networking website http://www.ThrillTheWorld.com.  ‘Thrill The World’ has organized 72 dance tribute events, breaking a world record last year with 4,179 dancers participating from 10 different nations.  They are hoping to reach their goal of 270,00 people to dance to Thriller in 2009 and pay tribute to Jackson’s life and dance. Thrill 2009 looks to be a big year for zombies doing the crawl of the dead!

This videodance tribute from 2008 showcases the individuals who came  together as dancing zombies to celebrate Michael Jackson’s influence on the world.

Anyone can learn the dance moves to Thriller, and participate in Thrill The World 2009.  There are various videos available online, such as this one.

In addition to thousands of people who are learning dance moves from online video, more and more people are learning Michael Jackson’s dance moves in dance studios around the world.  Leaders in the Hip Hop genre are doing their part to perform and teach Michael Jackson’s moves to current and future generations of dancers.  The following videodance tribute features Hip Hop Masters Lil’ Mama, Taeko, Feng, and The Beat Freaks.

The King of Pop was one inspirational gentleman, and will be remembered on a global scale…as evidenced by the videodances shared in this posting and the hundreds available on the Internet.  I look forward to continued celebrations of Michael Jackson through dance…so whenever you can, by yourself, with a partner, or with a group–get out there and dance!

Tune in next week for more posts in tribute to Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham.