A bunch of crazy lindy hoppers from Montpellier France have been travelling the globe and organizing public dance flash mobs that they call "I Charleston." They film the charleston jams and then put them online for others to enjoy. So far they have done Montpellier, Herrang, Stockholm, and Japan. And yesterday they came to New York!
About 20-ish lindy hoppers showed up from an event notice on Facebook organized by Akemi. French lindy hoppers, including Oliv, JB, Thomas and Alice, assembled folks in the middle of Times Square and gave us our dancing orders. Our first target was the big red steps over the TKTS booth. We "casually" made our way to various spots on the steps, and then broke out into charlestons as folks filmed and shot us.
Later we danced in other spots in Times Square and did an "Improv Everywhere" style charleston jam in the middle of Grand Central. So much fun!
The surprising part was how nonchalant the police and military security guys were in all the locations we were dancing in. This was a big contrast to the shim sham we did in Grand Central a couple of years ago, that was a security nightmare to try and negotiate. I think it had to do with the fact that we were a much smaller group, and we weren't pumping out any music.
Thanks for organizing this, Frenchie lindy hoppers!