Zombies perform ‘Thriller’ for Middle Way House

Dark blue, black and red paint covered the faces and long, blond hair of 9-year-old twins Lynna and Marissa Sylvester, two girls practicing dance moves while muttering the dance script to the Thrill the World 2010 dance.

Having set up the fog machine in Willkie Quad Auditorium Saturday, University Division Administrative Assistant Tammy Blunck noticed the girls’ costumes for the first time.

“Oh you girls look absolutely lovely,” she exclaimed.

“I think we look absolutely ugly,” Lynna replied.

Lynna and Marissa were two of 37 dancers in Bloomington — and by an unofficial count, 6,590 participants worldwide — who danced to Michael Jackson’s Thriller at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Last year, 42 dancers in Bloomington and 22,596 people worldwide set a record for the “Largest Simultaneous Thriller Dance” in multiple locations.

A screen projected a countdown to the dance’s starting time as the participants arrived and registered for the official event.

Led for the second time in Bloomington by academic adviser Alice Dobie-Galuska, the annual dance raised money for the Middle Way House, a local nonprofit that offers programs and services to women and children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

For the dance to count toward the official record, Dobie-Galuska had to register and count each dancer in the designated dance area, blocked off by yellow caution tape.

Seven minutes before 7 p.m., the zombie dancers and Dobie-Galuska, in her own torn zombie dress and calavera — or sugar skull — face paint, lie on the floor of the auditorium, their eyes fixated on the clock.

At 59 seconds, all the children began counting down in unison. The music began playing, and the dancers slowly rose, stumbling and shuffling as only zombies can.

The zombies, many far younger than the 28-year-old song itself, danced to “Thriller,” stomping forward, arms outstretched, moving to the rhythm of the pop hit. In three minutes it was finished, and the dancers struck their scariest zombie poses.

Dobie-Galuska counted out the dancers one by one, and the DJ began an after-party.

“What a good room for kids to have fun in,” Blunck said as the children swung each other on their backs across the smooth tile floor.

Jim Sizemore, academic adviser and host of “Gunga’s Drive-In,” a late-night cable-access program on Saturdays, judged a costume contest.

“I’m looking for originality, creativity and of course, scariness,” Sizemore said of the costumes. “Sheer terror is a plus.”

Sizemore dressed as his show’s host, “Gunga Jim,” in a genuine 1970s polyester tuxedo, sunglasses and bling.

The costumed dancers lined up in pairs to be judged, with everyone from Michael Jackson to Lynna and Marissa’s zombies present.

Several minutes later, Dobie-Galuska brought her dancers together to announce the costume winners. Lynna and Marissa were declared the scariest kid
zombies.