Have you had a "Carpe Diem" moment recently? I did a couple of days ago; I was totally outside my comfort zone, but it was so fun.
Last Saturday we woke up not having a clue what we were going to do that day. We made muffins and lounged in our pajamas until about 9:30 when Juan discovered that there was a huge fair going on downtown. Immediately excited about getting out and about, we started searching for more information about the fair. It turns out that it was the culminating event for the month-long Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Something that really caught my eye was the "Flash Mob Dance" that was supposedly taking place at a random time and random place within the 6-blocks of festivities. There was a link that I clicked and it took me to a page that had a video with the dance moves for the flash mob dance. I thought, "Whatever... I'm gonna learn it!" Four minutes later, I was feeling pretty awesome... like quite the hipster. The video had a caption saying that if anyone was interested in being part of the mob, they could e-mail so-and-so for the exact location and time for rehearsals/the "real deal". Instead of e-mailing, I did a little sleuthing on the good ol' Internet and found out that in an hour and a half, they would have rehearsals in the parking garage of the Kimmel Center, a large Peforming Arts Center downtown. Juan was so supportive of his CRAZY wife wanting to be a part of this, so we got ready as fast as we could and made our way into town. Once I finally got to the rehearsal, I was amazed. There were people from all walks of life who decided to participate in this: twenty-somethings, tweens, 8 year-olds, grandmas, dads, a very pregnant mom, nerds, hipsters, business women, etc. I think all-in-all there were about 70 people down there practicing for this thing. We were taught more of the dance and then told to meet by the stage at Sansom and Broad at 1:15. I was so excited, I just had to call my sister who is CRAZY
and a DANCER; I thought she'd get a kick out of it. Well, it turns out that "you just had to be there....." (ha ha... Sierra, love you ;^)
In the meantime, Juan, the girls and I walked around the festival and were thoroughly entertained by the face painter/storyteller, and the balloon man (who I am completely surprised didn't pass out, what with all the balloon blowing and excited storytelling.) Siena was desperate to be chosen as an "assistant" to the balloon man, and after a lot of patient hand-raising she was finally chosen to act the part of a fairy in the story of Sleeping Beauty. Her dream had come true... but it didn't take her long to realize after she was standing in front of an enormous crowd, that she had stage fright. By the end of the show, she had warmed up to the idea of following along as an actor and was again happy to be a part of the production. Qiana was so funny to watch because as all the kids around her raised their hands to be part of the balloon man's show, she would raise her hand and wave it in the air. Peer pressure.
We made our way to the predetermined area for the dance, and started trying to blend-in to make my participation more unexpected to those around us. The music came on, a single dancer started dancing in the middle of the street and people were clapping, screaming, and wondering what the heck was going on. The professional dancers in our group, just a few at a time, started dancing with her. Finally, mid-way through the song, our cue came and we all emerged from the crowd dancing this choreographed dance as the people standing next to us were all taken back by what was happening.
I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of a rush.
After the song ended, we all dispersed back into the crowd as fast as we had congregated. When I got back to Juan, he said that he had managed to keep track of BOTH of the girls
and record a small video on the camera. SCORE! So, I'm posting two videos, the first half (which Juan recorded) and the last half (a video shot from someone else from a different view.)
(I'm cracking up right now at watching some of the people who were caught in the middle of the mob. They had no idea what we were doing, but there they were, following along as best as they could.)
