Boom boom wow

YouTube. Home of the Rick Roll, keyboard cats and other viral sensations. Some GCSU students brought one such sensation to campus-the flash mob.

Sophomore Sam Johnson dreamt up the idea after watching some videos.

“I went to YouTube and checked out this flash mob, so we decided to start one,” Johnson said.

Johnson recruited through his friends, using word-of-mouth and a secret Facebook group to garner interest. However, keeping the event a secret was something that had to be handled carefully.

“It wasn’t that hard to keep a secret,” Johnson said.

He did note that it was difficult to keep inviting more people while maintaining secrecy.

“The dancers weren’t supposed to talk about it,” freshman Ala Bishop said.

After pulling the group together, all the members had to learn the choreography. Most of the dancers did not have any formal training.

“Some dance majors came up with the dance,” said sophomore English major Caitlyn Gower. “We’re just everyday people.”

The flash mob group recently performed in Sodexo during the lunch rush on March 10. A discreetly placed speaker near the window blasted the Black Eyed Peas song “Boom Boom Pow,” and a large group of dancers congregated to perform, to the surprise and approval of their fellow students. The dance lasted only a minute or so, with all the dancers scattering as quickly as they began, but its impact was noticeable.

“I thought it was neat to see all our friends perform,” sophomore mass communication major Kelsey Donaldson said.

While a few students had heard rumbles that a flash mob might be performing, many were still surprised by the dancers.

“We didn’t know about it until just now,” sophomore Spanish major Erica Grimes said.

This was not their first performance. They previously descended upon the crowds at Springfest the weekend before. This performance is available to view on YouTube.

“We got a lot of cheering (at Springfest),” senior history major Vivian Sims said.

Posted by Claire Kersey on Apr 2 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry