At least 80 “Zombies” turned out on Ajijic’s plaza October 27 to help set a world record for the number of folks showing up in their grave finery to dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
The idea to make the dance into an international event started in Canada when a group of 62 Zombies set a Guinness World Record in that one location in 2006. It was a fund-raiser that benefited the Red Cross.
That record was broken the very next year when 1,722 people from 52 cities in Croatia, Honduras, New Zealand, the Philippines and Sierra Leone all danced at the same time.
Local resident Elliott Joachim, a former ballroom dance instructor from suburban Washington, D.C., was attempting to teach dancing to children at the Love in Action Children’s Center in Chapala in 2009. According to her, they had a language problem. She then chose “Thriller” as the common language of dance. The kids loved it. That fall several people attending a Tall Boys Halloween party danced to the Thriller tune.Joachim registered with “Thrill the World” (organizers of the event) in 2011 after the Philipino prisoner video of “Thriller” went viral. Forty Lakesiders participated at the predetermined time on the Chapala malecon and raised 66,000 pesos for Cruz Roja Chapala.
This year 73 dancers signed up for the local event and about 80 actually showed up and danced. More than 500 people showed up to watch.
Through sponsorships, charges for make-up and passing the hat, the event produced 105,000 pesos. Keeping with tradition, organizers earmarked those pesos for Cruz Roja Chapala.
Joachim thanks the Club Exotica Sports Bar and Grill, the Hole-in-One Restaurant and Golf School and her “most tolerant employer, Absolut Fenix Realty for their support. “Without them, the dancers and volunteers,” said Joachim, “this just couldn’t have happened.”
The make-up was handled by Dee Dee Grant and seven volunteers and Heather Krause filmed the event and maintains the blog, http://ttwajijic.blogspot.mx. Another volunteer, Emily Perey, manages the communications between Joachim and the “Zombie Horde.”
Did this year’s “Thriller” event break a world record? According to Elliott we just don’t know yet. Look for the answer in the next issue of the Guadalajara Reporter.