Dancers to perform ‘Thriller’ at Powelloween

Posted 10/26/21

A horde of zombies will rise from their graves Friday night and … break into dance?

At 5 p.m., two dozen undead-looking members of Victoria’s School of Dance will amass at the …

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Dancers to perform ‘Thriller’ at Powelloween

Posted

A horde of zombies will rise from their graves Friday night and … break into dance?

At 5 p.m., two dozen undead-looking members of Victoria’s School of Dance will amass at the intersection of Bent and Third streets to perform Michael Jackson’s famed Thriller dance.

“… the dancers are excited and ready to go!” said Victoria Danovsky, who owns and operates the studio.

Ever since Thriller’s revolutionary music video debuted in 1983, many have sought to recreate the moves featured by the video’s dancing mob of the undead. But the Victoria’s School of Dance members hitting the downtown pavement on Friday have a distinct advantage: They recently learned the choreography from Marcea Lane — one of the original zombies from the iconic music video.

Lane is one of only four women who made the cut as one of Jackson’s zombies, and she now travels the country teaching the dance and “keeping it alive,” Danovsky said, with no pun intended.

Appearing in the Thriller video was a career highlight for Lane, but she went on to work with other ’80s stars like Barbra Streisand, Sting and Prince. She also started a line of dancewear before returning to her roots as a teacher.

In late September, Lane led a jazz workshop at Victoria’s School of Dance. Multiple concepts were covered, though learning Thriller took a full day, Danovsky said.

“What makes it complicated is the uniqueness of the movement and being able to hit each move the way it’s supposed to be hit with the music,” she said. “It’s got the theatrical dynamics of dance, but with some of the jazz technical pieces as well.”

Then there’s the added difficulty of portraying a zombie.

The 22 dancers from the Powell studio have crafted their own unique costumes, each with a backstory about how they came to be “undead.”

“They had to take the time to write a little bit of a story about who they were, what time era they lived [in], how they died,” Danovsky explained.

Fog machines should add to the eerie mood for Friday’s downtown performance.

There were hopes that Lane might join the school’s dancers, but she wound up with another commitment; Danovsky hopes the dancer may be able to join the school for a future performance.

“It’s really cool to have a legendary person such as herself come into our area here and be able to offer more to our kids and give them the exposure,” said Danovsky.

The dancing will take place at the tail end of Powelloween, where, from 4-5 p.m., youth are invited to collect candy from downtown merchants.

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