Flash Dance

Jon Haber
Divest This!
02 January '10


One upside of being stuck in a hotel in South Carolina while the airlines sorted themselves out last week was some unexpected family time, part of which included joining together in a king-size bed to watch Sound of Music.

The pleasure of seeing that film for the umpteenth time reminded me of this video (originally introduced to me by my oldest boy) of a “flash mob” breaking into a choreographed performance of “Do a Deer” at the main train station in Antwerp. Apparently, the Flash Mob phenomenon is worldwide with dancing and singing (not to mention statue performances and pillow fights) breaking out from New York to San Francisco to Jerusalem.

As much as I enjoy the performances themselves, the thing that really moved me about these flash-mob “attacks” is the look of bewilderment turning to joy that appears on the faces of passers-by who happen upon these activities. To a certain extent, this is just the natural response anyone would have when confronted with a world that suddenly turns into a Broadway musical. But I suspect there is more to this reaction than simple surprise.

After all, we are now nearly a decade into the post 9-11 era, and while we may have convinced ourselves that those attacks are now part of history, anyone old enough to have remembered that experience must in some way be sublimating a notion that unspeakable horror can break out at any moment, arbitrarily killing, maiming or destroying without mercy. Yet the flash mob (even if often commercial) tells us that joy can magically break out without warning just as arbitrarily as violence.

But what would happen to this tool of unexpected magic if the BDSers got their feces-encrusted oven mitts on the concept? Well then you might have something like this.

(Read full "Flash Dance")

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