Everybody dance now
Mar. 16th, 2016 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaOn Saturday, ChrisC scooted down to Ealing Shopmobility for me and collected a manual wheelchair. They offered me a self-propelled one, which I initially tried to decline as I assumed that meant powered. However, self-propelled just means "big wheels", of the sort you can use to propel yourself around when you're sitting in it. The clue's kind of in the name, I guess.
It seemed a little peverse to be borrowing a wheelchair just as I was feeling like I was starting to make progress in the walking department. However, I remember an important lesson learned from a friend at WGW some years ago: a wheelchair is just a tool, if it makes something easier, use it. I still recall her rolling cheerfully across the floor, declaring "I feel way less disabled in this chair than I usually do trying to stand up".
So I borrowed a wheelchair because on Sunday afternoon we had an important dancing mission.
Yes, dancing. Yes, I was missing DERT because I couldn't dance. Stick with me.
Some years ago, a gentleman called Matt posted a video on YouTube. It's called Where the hell is Matt? 2005 and features footage of Matt doing a silly, goofy dance in various disparate geographical locations. There's another called Where the hell is Matt? 2006 which is the same, with slightly better production. They're kind of fun, but really it's just one guy on his travels, jigging up and down in front of various landmarks.
Then in 2008, something happened. People obviously started saying "come to our city! we'll dance with you!" Other people were presumably just around and agreed to join in. Where the hell is Matt? 2008 is a triumph of people doing stupid, goofy dancing and having a lot of fun. Some people copy Matt's jogging-up-and-down dance. Most people do their own thing.
In 2012, he upped his game and Where the hell is Matt? 2012 is all about the choreography. Small groups, large groups. Some people doing a particular dance form who have tried (with varying success) to teach Matt to do what they do. Lots of people just dancing.
What I love in particular about the big groups is that there's always kids who haven't really grasped what's going on, and some people who are out of time, and some bloke who's doing something different. Someone's modified the dance because they're in a wheelchair, and someone's sticking the wrong arm in the air because they're holding a baby in the other, and some have just decided to ignore the instructions and wig out in their own way. And everyone's in shot, and everyone looks like they're having a great time.
Matt Kickstarted his latest video. Which is basically him saying "pay me to have an extended holiday, and I'll come and dance in your city". And enough people thought it was a good idea that it worked. Which is fair enough. I think the world is a much better place with his videos in it.
So on Sunday ChrisC wheeled me down to Ealing and onto the tube (obviously I had to get out of the wheelchair and do three flights of stairs because Ealing Broadway hasn't quite got with the accessibility program yet). Having examined the still-rather-disappointing selection of stations which have, we went to Westminster and he trundled me over Westminster Bridge to Leake Street tunnel.
The tunnel was full of a small number of people spraypainting (it's a legal graffiti wall), and a large number of people standing about looking a bit confused.
Matt showed up, with his cameraman - who turned out rather improbably to be Elan Lee, the designer of Exploding Kittens. He had a large box of games to sell, a large tripod, and a tiny mobile phone for the actual filming. And Matt explained his rules: "It's impossible to do this dance wrong..."
Some police wandered up and stood, arms sternly folded, looking at the small crowd. Presumably they decided we looked benign and non-riotous; when I turned round to see if they'd joined in, they'd gone.
We danced. We danced at the Millennium Bridge, and at The Scoop (though I ducked out of the jumping-down-steps part). And you know what? It was fun. It was lovely weather, and we danced about, and we chatted to people we didn't know. And we ran into![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mykreeve, which is always an indicator that you're at a cool event :) On the South Bank, tourists looked bemused. Some opted to join in anyway. People who could hear Matt passed the instructions along for those who couldn't. Some people translated the instructions for those near them. Did they translate correctly? Who cares?
If you know where to look, you can see ChrisC and I up on the Millennium Bridge in the photo Matt tweeted. If you don't, we are just two more dots in some cheerfully bright-coloured humanity.
I also now know exactly why people are always out of time. It's impossible to hear the music :)
It seemed a little peverse to be borrowing a wheelchair just as I was feeling like I was starting to make progress in the walking department. However, I remember an important lesson learned from a friend at WGW some years ago: a wheelchair is just a tool, if it makes something easier, use it. I still recall her rolling cheerfully across the floor, declaring "I feel way less disabled in this chair than I usually do trying to stand up".
So I borrowed a wheelchair because on Sunday afternoon we had an important dancing mission.
Yes, dancing. Yes, I was missing DERT because I couldn't dance. Stick with me.
Some years ago, a gentleman called Matt posted a video on YouTube. It's called Where the hell is Matt? 2005 and features footage of Matt doing a silly, goofy dance in various disparate geographical locations. There's another called Where the hell is Matt? 2006 which is the same, with slightly better production. They're kind of fun, but really it's just one guy on his travels, jigging up and down in front of various landmarks.
Then in 2008, something happened. People obviously started saying "come to our city! we'll dance with you!" Other people were presumably just around and agreed to join in. Where the hell is Matt? 2008 is a triumph of people doing stupid, goofy dancing and having a lot of fun. Some people copy Matt's jogging-up-and-down dance. Most people do their own thing.
In 2012, he upped his game and Where the hell is Matt? 2012 is all about the choreography. Small groups, large groups. Some people doing a particular dance form who have tried (with varying success) to teach Matt to do what they do. Lots of people just dancing.
What I love in particular about the big groups is that there's always kids who haven't really grasped what's going on, and some people who are out of time, and some bloke who's doing something different. Someone's modified the dance because they're in a wheelchair, and someone's sticking the wrong arm in the air because they're holding a baby in the other, and some have just decided to ignore the instructions and wig out in their own way. And everyone's in shot, and everyone looks like they're having a great time.
Matt Kickstarted his latest video. Which is basically him saying "pay me to have an extended holiday, and I'll come and dance in your city". And enough people thought it was a good idea that it worked. Which is fair enough. I think the world is a much better place with his videos in it.
So on Sunday ChrisC wheeled me down to Ealing and onto the tube (obviously I had to get out of the wheelchair and do three flights of stairs because Ealing Broadway hasn't quite got with the accessibility program yet). Having examined the still-rather-disappointing selection of stations which have, we went to Westminster and he trundled me over Westminster Bridge to Leake Street tunnel.
The tunnel was full of a small number of people spraypainting (it's a legal graffiti wall), and a large number of people standing about looking a bit confused.
Matt showed up, with his cameraman - who turned out rather improbably to be Elan Lee, the designer of Exploding Kittens. He had a large box of games to sell, a large tripod, and a tiny mobile phone for the actual filming. And Matt explained his rules: "It's impossible to do this dance wrong..."
Some police wandered up and stood, arms sternly folded, looking at the small crowd. Presumably they decided we looked benign and non-riotous; when I turned round to see if they'd joined in, they'd gone.
We danced. We danced at the Millennium Bridge, and at The Scoop (though I ducked out of the jumping-down-steps part). And you know what? It was fun. It was lovely weather, and we danced about, and we chatted to people we didn't know. And we ran into
mykreeve, which is always an indicator that you're at a cool event :) On the South Bank, tourists looked bemused. Some opted to join in anyway. People who could hear Matt passed the instructions along for those who couldn't. Some people translated the instructions for those near them. Did they translate correctly? Who cares?If you know where to look, you can see ChrisC and I up on the Millennium Bridge in the photo Matt tweeted. If you don't, we are just two more dots in some cheerfully bright-coloured humanity.
I also now know exactly why people are always out of time. It's impossible to hear the music :)
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no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 10:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 07:08 pm (UTC)Edit: Random, and apparently, old. I'll need to start creating some more icons.
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Date: 2016-03-16 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 10:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 10:32 am (UTC)He was very nice about people wanting photos or videos with him... "just let me know whether it's a photo or a video, so I know whether to go like this or like that". I didn't want a photo, but he had a big queue!
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 12:06 pm (UTC)Glad that you're feeling a bit more improved and that your left knee is just mostly feeling grumpy due to being upstaged.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 12:16 pm (UTC)(Seriously, very poor quality! For some teams I could see enough to work out who I was watching. Most not. I gave up after Sally called me :)
You may be surprised to know that I own a morph suit. I can't remember why; it was for a fancy dress outfit I never made. It is, of course, black.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 01:44 pm (UTC)For your delectation, Red Mum's Showcase dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMXeWEb21aI
and, for being a Bad Mabel, a very bad video of Medlock's Showcase finale. The two blokes nearest to the camera were dressed as the 'Cheeky Girls' and I have no idea how they got into those golden hotpants and absolutely no wish to find out....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz75xWVreHo
no subject
Date: 2016-03-17 02:03 pm (UTC)Goodness. 9? That explains why it looked weird when blurred!
Medlock's Showcase finale
Aargh. Help. And more morph suits? Was there a memo, or something?
I am also vaguely surprised that no one's ever thought of using 5, 6, 7, 8 before. Although there are also many reasons not to.
I don't spy Jeff L onstage. Don't tell me he decided it was too undignified!
no subject
Date: 2016-03-22 02:20 pm (UTC)As far as the morph suits were concerned, I can only hope it was the result of some brief international morph suit sale and not an indication of an upcoming trend. What's scarier is that Red Mum voluntarily chose to remain in their suits all evening...