'Cause lovers dance when they're feeling in love
Spotlight's shining it's all about us
It's oh, oh, all
About uh, uh, us
How I became a world famous dancer- a memoir.
The day was May 4, 2013. It was a warm spring day in Manhattan and love was in the air. A young gentleman with a guitar and raspy voice croons the beginning of Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” and then… THE BEAT DROPS! 10 people start dancing, then it grows to 14, and then Lady Gaga booms through a speaker and there’s dozens of people running and dancing and fist pumping and it’s all for love. And then One Direction starts up, but what’s that?! At the end of the soul train line is a man singing to a woman who is standing in the middle of the soul train and then he pulls out a ring and the dancers disperse! How romantic and theatric! All for love, all thanks to FEMACorps.
Surprisingly, that was not the shortest description of a corny finale to a Nicholas Sparks rom-com. That’s real life, people. Real life and real love- it’s a beautiful thing. About our third day on the job at FEMA, an email was sent out by a team leader asking if there were any CMs looking to participate in a super-secret flash mob to be held in May. A FEMA employee had asked the team leaders to gather their interested CMs and hopefully learn a dance to impress his soon-to-be fiancé in surprise flash mob fashion. For those of you confused as to what a flash mob is, allow me to explain. Generally, flash mobs are surprises to innocent bystanders. It starts with maybe one or two people dancing and then music starts and then before you know it more and more people, who onlookers might have thought were just pedestrians, join in the choreography. It’s what anyone who has ever wanted to be in a real life musical has ever dreamed of. When the music ends, the dancers generally disperse or go back to their previous positions as if no dancing had ever occurred. It’s always been on my bucket list to participate in one ever since I missed out at 2011 Merrimack Summer Orientation “Moves Like Jagger” flash mob. So, after figuring out the total number of FEMACorps participants in this flash mob, the committee got to planning and my dreams would soon come true.
Other than the actual events and adrenaline rush of dancing like a fool in the middle of NYC, the most exciting part for me was the planning. Do not misunderstand: I HAD NO PART IN PLANNING THE CHOREOGRAPHY OR MUSIC SELECTION (although, I do love 1D). What I mean by exciting planning is that 90% of the flash mob organization was done by a committee of 4 Corps Members. The other 10% was done by a team leader (shout out to Lisa D for crushin’ it, per usual). It was really exciting to see CMs take so much initiative outside of the work place. I was especially proud because one of the dance routines was completely choreographed and taught by one of my CMs, Curice.
Months of preparation, song selection, logistics, and whatever other planning was done- we were ready to learn the dance. Four evenings that week were spent on the roller hockey rink in the park across from our Extended Stay hotel learning the dance. The days were long and we complained, but looking back it was completely worth it. After spending 8 hours of their day in a crowded, hot, and stuffy office space it was rewarding to see the CMs working together, running freely, laughing, and having a great time learning to dance to Lady Gaga. From a supervisor point of view, it can be frustrating to see people not listening to instructions or goofing off when they need to be paying attention. I think it took being in the supervisor position for the CMs to realize this. It was refreshing for me to step back and watch them try to control a group of people and I genuinely think they gained a lot of experience just from a few days of being in charge. “I don’t want to repeat myself again” or “Guys, please pay attention” or “Let’s all try to work together this time” were just a few phrases I had to laugh at because the CMs finally started to sound like the TLs. Overall, it was a learning experience for everyone and it paid off in more than one way.
May 4th (Happy Star Wars day, everyone. May the fourth be with you) finally came around and the smell of romance blossomed around us. Not really. We had to take a bus and two subways to get to Foley Park so really the smell of crowded New York public transit was around us, but nonetheless the feeling of love was there. We exited the subway station in the south part of Manhattan, found the park, practiced a few times, and then we waited. We attempted to look as casual as possible while patiently awaiting the fiancé-to-be’s arrival, but it’s always pretty obvious that something is going to happen when there’s 95 18-24 year olds sitting on the ground and park benches not doing anything. Well, obvious to anyone who isn’t on the most exciting scavenger hunt of their lives seeking their significant other. Basically, the bride had no idea there was even a flash mob occurring until about half way through the entire thing. For the most part, the routine went swimmingly. I crushed the entire thing (obviously) except for one part during the Lady Gaga song where we are supposed to turn and have a partner next to us and I turned to find no one so I had to improvise and ended up looking like a fool though I doubt anyone noticed.
After our performance, the happy couple bought FEMACorps pizza and thanked everyone for coming out, working hard, and participating. It was a really great day to be at Foley park and witness our flash mob. It was even better to witness the woman say “yes!” So much excitement all in one day! So much love, awwww <3
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