Zombies invade Lotus Festival

They stagger like zombies into the unsuspecting Lotus World Music & Arts Festival crowd Saturday.

A werewolf howls through the boom box. They lie down in the middle of Kirkwood Avenue, 11 corpses this time. A circle of spectators forms, and all manner of cell phones and cameras emerge.

Spectator Kay Miller has a flash of recognition.

“Oh, they’re going to do the ‘Thriller’ dance,” she said to her husband.

The boom box confirms her suspicions as the synthesizer beat kicks into gear and the corpses suddenly stagger to their feet. They form rows to march the Zombie March, the first stage of Thrill The World’s dance script.

Alice Dobie-Galuska, a university division academic advisor, repeats the words to herself in her head.

“Right, left, right, left,” Alice thinks, stepping forward, then back, before Michael Jackson’s voice penetrates the eerie lush rhythm of the 1982 hit, still iconic 28 years later.

This zombie mob scene is only a precursor to Thrill The World 2010, when Thriller dancers worldwide will join the Bloomington crew and simultaneously perform to break a world record.

Alice, who is organizing the Bloomington dancers, says she hopes 200 people will show up for this year’s dance, which will take place at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23.

Alice and her zombies will practice at 6 p.m. every Saturday at the Panache School of Ballroom and Social Dance leading up to the event.

“It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark,” Jackson voice croons through the speakers.

The zombies slide into the March Booty Swim, jerking their heads to their right shoulders. Suzin Snyder, in black mascara and a top hat, along with her 12-year-old daughter, Autumn Snyder, in a purple leotard and glittered cheeks, do the booty bounce with arms outstretched.

“UNDER THE MOONLIGHT, YOU SEE A SIGHT THAT ALMOST STOPS YOUR HEART.”

Last year, 42 dancers in Bloomington and 22,596 people worldwide set a new world record for the “Largest Simultaneous Thriller Dance” in multiple locations. The world record attempt was organized by Thrill The World, which encourages its participants to raise funding and awareness for local charities.

On Oct. 24 and 25, 2009 — depending on the time zone — dancers in 264 cities from 33 countries put on their best zombie act and shattered the previous record of 4,179, set by Thrill The World’s 2008 event.

Last year’s Thriller dancers collectively raised more than $100,000 and hundreds of pounds of food.

“THIS IS THRILLER, THRILLER NIGHT.”

The chorus starts, and the zombies break into the Hip N’ Roar, one of the dance steps.

Alice and her flash mob wiggle their hips and roar silently to the left and right, elbows bent and claws extended in a frozen pose accentuated by the faces pulled into grotesque expressions.

“And no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike.”

Alice, who also organized Bloomington’s Thriller dance in 2009, raised $230 for Middle Way House, a not-for-profit that offers programs and services to women and children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

She cancelled her first practice for Thrill The World 2010 so that she and her zombies could raise awareness, guerilla-style, at Lotus Festival by dancing Thriller unannounced as a flash mob.

“It takes you away, you almost feel like you’re in a movie, like it isn’t real,” Alice says. “The ordinary day becomes something else.”

Alice still has her Thriller cassette tape and remembers listening to the album when she was young.

She taught herself the dance in a month’s span last year using Thrill The World’s online instructional videos. With fellow Thriller dancers, she performed spontaneously at farmers’ markets, generating the public’s interest.

“FOR NO MERE MORTAL CAN RESIST, THE EVIL OF THE THRILLER.”

Vincent Price’s maniacal laugh ends the song. The zombies rush into the audience, which breaks out in applause. As it disperses, Alice shouts, “Thrilltheworld.com.”

For their last dance, under the Lotus’ Arts Village tent and above the layer of chalk drawings that cover their concrete stage, they are joined by Kyle Gans, who learned the Thriller dance at bar mitzvahs,perfected it for prom and overheard some of the zombies talking about the dance in a Subway restaurant.

He breaks out in a solo and does the worm, crossing in front of the line of dancers. The chalk smudges the front of his IU basketball jersey. After the zombies rush the crowd, one of the spectators runs up to Alice.

“You are the coolest advisor I’ve ever met,” junior Stephen Snyder says. “I just had to say something.”