OLIVIA RICHMAN — General Assignment Reporter
Zombie make-up, candy, cider and, not to mention, learning part of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” It’s all part of the making of a Zombie Flash Mob! Last week, students piled in to the Adanti Student Center Ballroom to practice the “Thriller” dance, complete with zombie make-up, so they could surprise the student body with a flash mob sometime in the near future as part of the Haunted Homecoming theme. But exactly when will the flash mob take place?
“You’ll have to find out,” said Jessica Scibek, a fitness coordinator at Southern Connecticut State University’s Fitness Center, who helped put together the big event.
According to Scibek, the Thriller dance session has been a tradition for the past three years.
“First year it was a big success,” she said. “The second year it was on the same night as some other events on campus. It was still a lot of fun but with a smaller turnout. This year we collaborated with Programs Council, so we’re expecting it to be the best year yet.”
Amanda Meador, the dance instructor of the event and whose favorite Halloween movie is the original “Halloween,” said she will unfortunately not be a part of the flash mob but wishes she could.
“I love flash mobs,” she said, “I helped out two years ago. The freshmen had a flash mob two years ago for one of their Freshmen Year Experience classes at the Academic Quad.”
Meador has been dancing for 10 years and instructing dance for the past three. She said she started off with hip-hop but now it’s more Latin dancing, such as salsa and bachata.
“I am a huge Michael Jackson fan,” she said. “I love him. To this day, I’m still sad that he died. I learned the ‘Thriller’ dance two years ago. Every year I watch Youtube videos to refresh myself and my memory. I was asked to do this dance and teach it and I happily accepted.”
Meador is not the only one who used to know the “Thriller” dance.
“I’ve learned it in the past,” said Felix Reyes, a theater major at SCSU who took part in the practice, “but I don’t remember it. But once I start my body may recognize the movement and I’ll start to remember.”
Reyes is a Latin Ballroom dancer who has been training since he was 8. He’s been in a flash mob before.
“I did one freshman year,” he said. “It was awesome. I met a lot of cool people. I’m hoping for the same experience this year, my junior year.”
Maggie Shay, a math major at SCSU who enjoyed her zombie makeup, said she had never done the “Thriller” before.
“I’ve seen it in (the movie) ‘13 Going on 30,’” she said of the dance. “That’s the most experience I’ve had with that.”
Even though she had no experience, Shay still said she wanted to participate in the flash mob with the help of her roommate.
“My roommate made me because being in a flash mob is on her bucket list,” she said as her friend took pictures of her posing in her zombie make-up. “Besides, ‘Friends with Benefits’ had a flash mob in it.”
The “zombies” began to dance under Meador’s instruction in the ballroom after an hour delay. Many of the students had gotten their make-up done and had eaten the piles of candy that were on the table in the back. Meador told them not only the dance instructions, but told them to move as if they were the walking dead.
“I would like to play a zombie one day, absolutely,” said Reyes. “But if I saw a person in real zombie make-up in real life, I would run for my life!”
