Little did Smriti know that a visit to the Brookefields Mall on Saturday evening would turn out to be so eventful. Coimbatore joined the likes of Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi and a few other cities in organising a flash mob for the first time to inaugurate ‘Coimbatore Vizha’. “I walked into the mall looking to buy a pair of shoes, when I suddenly heard music blaring from the speakers,” said Smriti Das, a student. “I was very surprised to see a large group of people dancing at the atrium. I couldn’t believe a flash mob was happening in our city!”
At around 5.30 p.m., a few boys stepped into the atrium and began to dance. After a round of B-boying, a few others joined them to shake a leg to the title track of “Mankatha”. Within a couple of minutes, the popular ‘Why this Kolaveri di?’ began to play and people in large numbers broke into a jig. The dance which lasted for seven minutes saw around 260 people from different walks of life being a part of it. From a six-year-old boy to a 70-year-old Seema T Hinduja, everyone who joined the mob thoroughly enjoyed the dance, choreographed by Edwin of Footloose fame.
For many of the participants, the concept of a flash mob was quite new. They were trained by Edwin’s assistant choreographers for a week. Some of them, such as the employees from Pantaloons and Max, took an hour off from their daily routine for two days and learnt the steps. Edwin said, “Mass choreography is challenging. Our aim was to make the common person dance. We didn’t want to teach steps to the participants of the flash mob. We wanted them to follow what our choreographers did. We wanted them to enjoy dancing.”
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Coimbatore Vizha, an endaevour to celebrate the spirit of the city, will be held between January 2 and 8. To know more about the Vizha, visit www.coimbatorevizha.com/2012/index.html.