Life

People Surprise Ballroom Dance In NYC Crosswalks

by Lara Rutherford-Morrison

The good folks at Improv Everywhere have previously given us a surprise pizza party in the NYC subway, annual No Pants Subway Rides (for the last 14 years!), and an unexpected ballet performance. Let them brighten your Friday with their latest stunt, a surprise ballroom dance party at an NYC crosswalk. At this point, there have been approximately one bajillion flash mob videos of unexpected performances, and I know I should probably be old and jaded about them now, but I don’t care. Happy flash mob videos like this completely delight me Every. Single. Time. Seriously, what is better than people doing random stunts in public just to make others laugh? (OK, maybe cupcakes, but I digress).

In this video, unsuspecting New York pedestrians are treated to the sight of seemingly-random strangers bumping into each other at the busy crosswalk in front of Penn Station, on 7th Avenue. The strangers awkwardly try to get out of each other’s way, but then — surprise! — they start dancing together like total pros. It starts with one couple, and then another, and another, until the whole crosswalk is covered with dancing pairs. The people watching at first seem confused, and then excited and happy because that is the proper reaction to suddenly being confronted in the real world with a scene straight out of Singin’ In the Rain.

My favorite part is this awesome dude, who I think is not actually part of the stunt. He’s just a random guy who is FEELING IT:

I realize that scenes like this are totally staged and choreographed, but I think what I like so much about videos like this (with people spontaneously dancing, or making music, or whatever) is that they let me pretend for a moment that the world really is like an old school musical, where people can randomly start singing and dancing, and everyone will magically know all the words and all the steps, and we'll all be happy forever and ever, The End. I mean, is that too much to ask?

Images: YouTube (4)