The Barometer Online

Issue date: 11/2/09 Section: News

Tori Middelstadt | THE DAILY BAROMETER Above: Participants act as zombies as they dance dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in the attempt to break the college record last Friday. Right: Participants of all ages fill Reser Stadium.

Jeff Basinger | THE DAILY BAROMETER

By Katrina Lorengel

The Daily Barometer

As part of the Homecoming celebrations this year, the OSU Student Alumni Association hosted a recreation of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance with hopes of beating the previous college record.

Rehearsal for the dance was held Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6:30 p.m. at Dixon. Participants showed up at Reser Stadium at 5:30 p.m. Friday to practice the dance. Among the participants were students, parents, Corvallis residents and children.

Brianne Kisbo, a senior majoring in sociology and a hip-hop instructor, was the lead coordinator for the event. She instructed three classes which ran one hour each and had approximately 20 people per class. According to Kisbo, the dance was supposed to be filmed and put on YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook.

"The Student Alumni Association wanted to make a statement," Kisbo said. "It was also Halloween and the anniversary of 'Thriller' so it was perfect," Kisbo said.

The previous college record was set at the College of William and Mary in Richmond, Va., where 242 people participated in the dance routine that student Kevin Dua organized. Dua's group beat the previous record of 147 people in an event at a British secondary school.

According to The Gazette-Times, the unofficial number of participants for the OSU attempt was 638 people, beating the previous college record by 396.

Although this is an exciting feat for OSU, this isn't the first world record the university has broken.

In November 2003, 766 students, staff, faculty and community members broke the world pillow fight record. However, the pillow fight record has since been broken. The current record was set in 2008 by the British Broadcast Corp. which had 3,706 participants, according to BBC News.

Amber Harsh, a freshman majoring in chemistry, was one of the many participants dancing in the event. Although she didn't go to the rehearsal classes Kisbo hosted, she did show up at Reser half an hour early to learn the dance. Harsh said she is a big fan.

"I love Michael Jackson," Harsh said. "The things that were going on before he died were unfortunate but I believe you should love the famous for their work. He made great music."

The "Thriller" record has had many attempts in the last few months. Spain and Mexico both attempted to beat the world record. On Sept. 18, Mexico was said to have broken the record with 13,957 participants. There are now speculations about this record stemming from Dragon*Con, a group of Thriller fans who set out to beat the Guinness World Record on Sept. 6.

According to the Dragon*Con website, Guinness changed the rules in the middle of the competition. There are rules set in place that groups must follow to be able to qualify for the world record holders. There are also different versions of the dance.

"Both Mexico and Spain danced to the music video version, not the 5:58 single version of 'Thriller,'" Dragonconthriller.com said. "The music video version is over 10 minutes long, with only 2:40 worth of dancing."

Sherri Perkins, a Corvallis resident and mother of two, heard about the event through a friend on Facebook and is a big Michael Jackson fan.

"I've never been to an event like this but I've seen videos from YouTube and it looked really cool," Perkins said.

The final rehearsal was held outside of Reser on the north side at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Participants were decked out in zombie-wear complete with face make-up, masks, torn and tattered clothes as well as a Michael Jackson costume straight from the music video.


Katrina Lorengel, staff writer

737-2231, news@dailybarometer.com

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