Dance of the undead

Zombies ‘Thrill the World' at LHS gym in effort to break world record, raise funds for cancer research

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by REID SILVERMAN Jacquelene Kielpinski of Lexington Park, one of the organizers of Saturday's Thrill the World event, dances like a zombie to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at Leonardtown High School's gym. Top, Jeff Janus of Mechanicsville turns into a zombie for the Oct. 24 event. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Jordan Paganelli, center, 17, of California visits with the zombie dancers, from bottom clockwise, Sophia Campbell, Rena Wildberger, Jeff Janus, Lori Norton, Judi Ferrara and Dawn Campbell, before the Thrill the World dance event at the Leonardtown High School gym. Click here to enlarge this photo The zombies, clockwise from top, Jeff Janus, Rena Wildberger, Kristine Summers, Sophia Campbell, Judi Ferrara, Lori Norton and Dawn Campbell, wait for "thrill time." Click here to enlarge this photo

Zombies lay motionless on the gym floor at Leonardtown High School on Saturday evening.

The limp "undead" ranged from the third-grader with hollowed out eyes to the college student with a sheet-white face to the one dressed like a bride, still in her tattered wedding dress.

The audience in the bleachers grew quiet as the zombies gradually began to writhe on the floor. Slowly they rose to their feet as the sound of rushing wind and distant howling filled the gym. Then the familiar beat of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" began and the zombies lurched forward together in their zombie walk.

It was "thrill time."

Thrill time was 8:30 p.m. EST on Oct. 24 and dancers dressed as zombies at approximately 278 locations all over the world – China, Australia, Turkey, Lithuania, Chile, Canada – danced to "Thriller."

The group of eight zombies at Leonardtown High were participating in what since 2007 has been an annual effort called Thrill the World; an attempt to break a record with Record Holders Republic for the largest simultaneous dance. Most of the hundreds of groups participating in the event were also trying to raise funds for a nonprofit organization at the same time. Last year, 4,179 people at 72 events in 10 nations participated, setting the record to beat. As of Wednesday evening, Ines Markelle of Toronto, creator and director of Thrill the World, said there were 22,923 official participants, easily surpassing the event's previous record.

"My big picture goal is to have a million people dancing at the same time," Markelle said in a phone interview Wednesday. "It will get there."

In St. Mary's County, Dawn Hale Campbell of California co-coordinated the inaugural St. Mary's County event with Jacquelene Kielpinski of Lexington Park.

Campbell heard about a group in Mount Airy participating in the event and immediately wanted to join in, she said.

"Jacquelene and I both are Michael Jackson fans anyway," she said Saturday as she applied her makeup as a zombie bride. "So, we wanted to get a group together, get some exercise and benefit a good cause." The Leonardtown event raised approximately $700 for two groups — a Relay For Life team, "Team JP," set up to honor 17-year-old Leonardtown High School student Jordan Paganelli, a neighbor of Campbell's who is dealing with Stage IV Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer that predominantly affects children, and the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative, which funds research that studies Paganelli's form of cancer.

Paganelli and his parents attended Saturday's dance event.

"It's very touching," Laurie Paganelli said of the group's efforts in her only son's behalf. "Neighbors like Dawn, they're just wonderful."

Because Campbell and Kielpinski heard about the event fairly late into this year, they didn't have much time to organize, they said.

"We pulled it together in about a month," Kielpinski said. "It's been fun. I think we've all dropped five or 10 pounds."

Practices were held four times each week and participants were encouraged to practice at home. The dance is based on eight basic moves. Since they started preparing, Campbell says she can't get the "Thriller" song or the dance moves out of her head. "As I'm driving, when I wake up in the morning, at work … it just pops in my head," she said, and began repeating some of the dance steps, "shoulder, step; shoulder, step."

"Yes, I've been eating, breathing and living this song for over a month," Kielpinski said.

Sophia Campbell, 8, a third-grader at Evergreen Elementary School, was the youngest zombie at the Leonardtown event. Her age didn't appear to be a barrier to her learning the dance, however, as she stood in front of the group during the event and performed the steps while maintaining a convincingly undead expression.

"The first two practices, they were kind of hard," Sophia said before the dance. She and her mother "practiced at home, and I got it."

Several of the zombie dancers were connected to the College of Southern Maryland. Even before she heard about the Thrill the World event at Leonardtown, Judi Ferrara, the fitness coordinator at CSM's Leonardtown campus, was already working with a group of students to learn the "Thriller" dance for Halloween. Ferrara also participated as one of the zombies.

"It's not easy," she said of the dance.

The Thrill the World dance lasts 5 min., 57 seconds. It is a lengthened version of the zombie portion of the "Thriller" video because a dance of at least five minutes is required to be considered for the world record. Other requirements are that the events be registered at the official Web site, the official dance steps must be followed and all the dancers worldwide must start at the same time, taking the different time zones into consideration.

The audience of approximately 50 supporters applauded the zombie dancers as the dancers dropped to the floor at the end of Saturday's dance. Then Campbell invited members of the audience on to the floor to try the dance themselves along with the zombies one more time.

In Maryland, in addition to the Leonardtown event, "Thrill the World" dances were held in Baltimore, Bowie, Cheverly, Mount Rainier, Oakland and Salisbury.

Campbell and Kielpinski say they plan to organize a St. Mary's County Thrill the World event again next year. "It would be great to have something like this to look forward to around Halloween … I just think all this excitement will carry over to next year," Kielpinski said.

scraton@somdnews.com

To learn more

For more about the worldwide Thrill the World events and to view videos of some of the groups dancing, visit www.thrilltheworld.com. To view a video of the Leonardtown zombies dancing, go to www.youtube.com and search "Thrill the World 2009 Southern Maryland." To contact local organizers about participating in next year's event on Oct. 24, 2010, e-mail ttw09somd@gmail.com.