A New Dance World Record

March 20, 2013

You probably heard a lot about the U.K.’s Big Dance project last year, when celebrations of dance were held all over the country as part of the Cultural Olympiad leading up to the Olympics. (Remember the London flash mob choreographed by Wayne McGregor?)

Well, a friend of Big Dance has just announced a new world record for “most choreographers to a single dance piece”: 152.

152!

How the heck did that happen, you ask? Thanks to choreographer/dancer Tim Casson’s project “The Dance We Made,” created with the help of a micro-grant from Big Dance.

During many of the Big Dance events last summer, Casson went around asking people to contribute a step or two to a new piece, and filmed the entire process. Against what seem like considerable odds (you’d think 152 choreographers would be too many cooks in the kitchen, right?), the resulting dance is kind of beautiful. But the best part is watching Casson getting all of these everyday people to show off their best moves, or even just talk about images or ideas that might inspire a bit of dancing. And the world record, which was officially announced today, is icing on the cake.

You can see all of the various videos Casson made during the process here, check out the trailer below to get an overall feel for the project, or scroll to the bottom to watch the finished piece. Congratulations, Tim!