the rest are here
Monday, November 1, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Rehearsal Schedule
The following is a list of rehearsal dates. The goal here is for you to make as many as you can, with the October ones being the most important. Nothing will be different then, it's just close to the event date.
- Sunday Aug. 29 (1-2) @ Northshore Yoga
- Sunday Sept. 19 (1-2) @Northshore Yoga
- Sunday Oct. 3 (1-2) @Northshore Yoga
- Sunday Oct. 17 (5-6) *Coolidge Park
Rehearsals will be one hour. We'll go dance the dance several times and talk about costumes if you want.
There might be other outdoor rehearsals as the weather cools. We'll just play that by ear.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
One More Workshop!
Many thanks to Lacy Dickerson at Zanzibar Studio for letting us hold the last two workshops in her beautiful studio. I've been going to Zanzibar off and on for the last 5 years and can't say enough about it. I love it.
And we have outgrown it! Northshore Yoga has been so kind to offer us rehearsal space! I'll post the schedule soon. Also, we will be having one more workshop on Sept. 12, 1-3pm there at Northshore. If you have yet to make it to a workshop please come. Otherwise it's the videos for you! You MUST learn the dance before you come to a rehearsal. We will be running the whole dance from start to finish during rehearsals and will not be teaching steps.
The workshop is donation based and rehearsals are free. Our charity we are supporting is The Partnership for Women, Children and Families. Specifically their Domestic Violence Program.
We are up to 35 dancers!
Rock and Roar!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
First Workshop is this Sunday, August 8th!
1-3 pm. Remember to bring water. You may attend this workshop or the 2nd one (August 15th)
For those learning via the videos (or to just get a good primer):
part 2 (warming up)
For those learning via the videos (or to just get a good primer):
part 2 (warming up)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Learn Thriller Dance -- Part 1 of 40 clips
First video. Ines explains her vision and her method of teaching the dance.
Workshop info and things good to know before starting
It's time to start learning. Workshops will be held Sunday August 8 and Sunday August 15 1-3 pm at Zanzibar Studio. Attendance at only one workshop is necessary. We will cover everything in the 2 hours. Donation based with all proceeds going to this year's Fringe Benefit charity which is still to be announced.
Why are we doing it so early? The reason is simple. Everyone is busy busy. And also many are working creating and rehearsing for other performances and events. So, we will learn early and rehearse casually up until the event. It won't be necessary to come to every rehearsal, just make a couple of them and the final one, which will be a week prior to the event. When you are rehearsing for whatever show you have coming up, tack Thriller onto the end.
If you can make it to one of the workshops, please attend. If you absolutely can NOT make it on one of those Sundays, there are a couple of other options.
1. Learn the choreo on your own with the Thrill the World videos that are available on YouTube. It MUST be the Thrill the World choreography ie: don't pull up the music video and try to go from that. What we will be doing is a standard, simplified version of the original choreo that is easily learned by all. Even the non-dancer. Mike and I taught ourselves in the basement. It's really easy.
2. contact me and we'll work something out. This is a last resort though as I may not be available but I will try to get everyone taught.
Things to know before you commit to the event.
Video: The dance will be videoed and put up on YouTube. This is TTW requirement. It shows the world that we actually did do the dance. So, if you are in a witness protection program or just embarrassed by your own dancing, be aware of this. You can always wear a costume and no one will eeeeeeever know. ;p
Costumes: Costuming is encouraged but not required to participate. Zombie it up or pick something from a horror movie. Have fun. A little tip: zombies stumble around and such. GREAT costume for dancing. You mess up? well, you MEANT to do it. I'll post tips for costuming when it gets closer to the event.
Time: this won't be a quick event. Sure, the dance itself is 3 minutes long but you will need to be on site at the venue at least a couple of hours early. Reason being that you must be registered, sign the log book, do a run through (test out those costumes...nothing ruins a night like getting hit by someones runaway severed arm), and be in place before Thrill Time. The logbook will close at 6:30. No exceptions.
Prior to the event: If you are doing workshops or exercise that day you know your body and how much you can push it. If you are not in shape for it please do not go do a floorwork workshop or 100 squats and then come dance. Don't wear yourself out. Only you know what you can do.
Goal of this event:
Yes, we'll be adding Chattanooga to the roll call for the worldwide event and raising money for charity but one of the biggest things is we will be working together as a community. It's a great chance to get to know your sisters in dance that may take classes somewhere else and do different styles.
At the moment, it is looking like the event will be all ages. Invite your children or your husbands and boyfriends to dance with us. You do not have to be a dancer to learn the dance. That's the beauty of it...well as beautiful as dancing zombies can be.
Why are we doing it so early? The reason is simple. Everyone is busy busy. And also many are working creating and rehearsing for other performances and events. So, we will learn early and rehearse casually up until the event. It won't be necessary to come to every rehearsal, just make a couple of them and the final one, which will be a week prior to the event. When you are rehearsing for whatever show you have coming up, tack Thriller onto the end.
If you can make it to one of the workshops, please attend. If you absolutely can NOT make it on one of those Sundays, there are a couple of other options.
1. Learn the choreo on your own with the Thrill the World videos that are available on YouTube. It MUST be the Thrill the World choreography ie: don't pull up the music video and try to go from that. What we will be doing is a standard, simplified version of the original choreo that is easily learned by all. Even the non-dancer. Mike and I taught ourselves in the basement. It's really easy.
2. contact me and we'll work something out. This is a last resort though as I may not be available but I will try to get everyone taught.
Things to know before you commit to the event.
Video: The dance will be videoed and put up on YouTube. This is TTW requirement. It shows the world that we actually did do the dance. So, if you are in a witness protection program or just embarrassed by your own dancing, be aware of this. You can always wear a costume and no one will eeeeeeever know. ;p
Costumes: Costuming is encouraged but not required to participate. Zombie it up or pick something from a horror movie. Have fun. A little tip: zombies stumble around and such. GREAT costume for dancing. You mess up? well, you MEANT to do it. I'll post tips for costuming when it gets closer to the event.
Time: this won't be a quick event. Sure, the dance itself is 3 minutes long but you will need to be on site at the venue at least a couple of hours early. Reason being that you must be registered, sign the log book, do a run through (test out those costumes...nothing ruins a night like getting hit by someones runaway severed arm), and be in place before Thrill Time. The logbook will close at 6:30. No exceptions.
Prior to the event: If you are doing workshops or exercise that day you know your body and how much you can push it. If you are not in shape for it please do not go do a floorwork workshop or 100 squats and then come dance. Don't wear yourself out. Only you know what you can do.
Goal of this event:
Yes, we'll be adding Chattanooga to the roll call for the worldwide event and raising money for charity but one of the biggest things is we will be working together as a community. It's a great chance to get to know your sisters in dance that may take classes somewhere else and do different styles.
At the moment, it is looking like the event will be all ages. Invite your children or your husbands and boyfriends to dance with us. You do not have to be a dancer to learn the dance. That's the beauty of it...well as beautiful as dancing zombies can be.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Remembering Last Year and Some Personal Thriller History
Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's death. Even though we had started planning our largest Thriller dance for Dragon Con in May last year, it was upon his death that Kimber and I decided we HAD to do it and we had to get it going immediately. Kimber and I were joined by Lauren and we started planning to break the world record in September for the largest Thriller dance in one place. At the time it stood at 232 dancers. We started a website, directed people to the videos on YouTube and started planning and learning the dance ourselves.
After MJ's death, the idea caught on around the world. Specifically England, Spain, and Mexico. On what would have been Michael's 50th birthday groups in these countries attempted to break the William and Mary record of 232. England had close to 500, Spain around 800 and Mexico City............brace yourself.............close to 13000. After viewing their attempts we saw that Spain did not dance the required 5 minutes for the record. England DID and we were excited that we could break this. Mexico City, while HUGE and commendable, did NOT dance the choreography according to the guidelines for the record, instead they did the 2 minute dance section from the music video. Big mistake! or so we thought. It was impressive though. Here's the video because it's something else to see that many people dancing. I can't imagine the nightmare of herding all those cats.
Pretty cool no? Given the fact that they did not follow guidelines we were sure if we got more than 500 people that it would take to beat England, we would have it and at that time we had close to that many signed up on our website.
Once we got to Dragon Con, the response was unbelievable. We had over a thousand to sign up on site. Ok, so I don't think we really realized how HUGE this thing was. I was supposed to be the one to teach the dance and of course when 500 people say they are going to learn the dance, they don't. We had less than 100 probably that knew it well enough to just rehearse and go with it the other 900 piled into the Sheraton hotel and chaos began. We took about 30 (I don't remember the exact number) that had agreed to be a dance leader and made them teachers. We spilled out of our designated space and covered the entire bottom floor of the hotel. Everywhere people were learning Thriller. We had 3 hours to teach a 6 minute choreography to 900+ people. Some showed up for the second rehearsal and those....they learned it in an hour and a half. Kimber cried tears of joy when she got down to the hotel and saw what was going on and saw how many people were dancing. Here's a teaching session/rehearsal. Notice the alien in the middle.
In the end, we had 903 people dancing Thriller. Sweaty. Exhausted. And loving it.
In the end, Guinness ended up changing their guidelines after the fact so that they could give it to Mexico. While infuriating, there are bigger problems in the world. There are also other world record granting institutions. We currently hold the record with Record Holders Republic for largest Thriller dance in one location. And that's for the whole 6 minutes.
And this is how I came to know the choreography to Thriller. Friendships were forged that day and I've never seen a better example of teamwork and perseverance. Not for something just for giggles anyway. I'd like us, as belly dancers, to come together no matter where we take classes, or what our styles are, include our family, our friends and make new friends and create something we'll remember.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Intro and Save the Date!!!!!
Hello and welcome to Thrill the World 2010 Chattanooga Fringe. Fringe because we are in cahoots with the 2nd annual Fringe Benefit, brain child and fundraiser put together by the lovely ladies of Mirabai and well, because we are belly dancers.
All official information will be posted here in this blog so check back often.
Learn all about Thrill the World at www.thrilltheworld.com. Last year's worldwide event had almost 23,000 participants in 32 countries!
The Fringe Benefit will take place on October 22. Details to be announced. Our "chapter" of Thrill the World will occur Saturday Oct. 23 at 7pm at a location to be announced.
If you are interested, you must be a belly dancer in the North Ga./Chattanooga area or friends or family of a belly dancer (others may be considered on a individual basis*. Just drop us a line.) The goal here is to bring our little community together with a common purpose. So many times we stick with our troupes or schools or even our styles, and we don't get to know each other. Come join us, laugh with us, sweat with us, and raise money for women's charities. Also imagine how cool you'll be breaking out in dance when you hear Thriller at parties the following weekend.
Workshops to learn Thriller are to be announced soon. They will take place at Zanzibar Studio in downtown Chattanooga and they will be donation based with 100% of the proceeds going to this year's charity.
If you are interested please email your name and info to ttw10chattanoogafringe@gmail.com. When workshops are scheduled you will be emailed and also stay tuned here for developments. Instructional videos are still available on YouTube so check them out and get ahead of the game.
We will be learning the 3 minute version. More on that later. Even though costumes are not required to participate, they always make things more fun, so let's try to do it up right. :) More on that later too.
Save the date and get ready to THRILL!
*if you are someone that has danced at a Thriller record attempt before or if you are someone that is curious about learning to dance please feel free to join us. You may just find a new love and find yourself in a dance class in the future.
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