Zombies 'thrill the world' at BCT

Dressed in their finest zombie costumes, 46 dancers gathered on stage at Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington, ready to dance for six minutes with others from across the world.

At exactly 3 p.m. Saturday, these dancers took part in Thrill The World, a worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Canadian Ines Markeljevic  formally started Thrill The World in 2007 after two local events in 2006.

The event has since expanded to 22 countries and includes more than 150 events.

Thrill the World takes place annually during October to raise money for local charities, connect communities and attempt to break the world record for the number of people dancing to “Thriller” at one time.

The local event raised more than $950, which included money collected at each “Thriller” practice as well as donations at the dance itself.

All funds raised will go to the Cardinal Stage Company, a local theater group.

“Most of the people here I have never met before,” event manager Alice Dobie-Galuska said. “But now we have this thing in common, which is pretty neat.”

Dobie-Galuska started the Bloomington event in 2009, the same year the famous pop star died.

The group began practicing in late August and has practiced about seven times since then to prepare.

While most of the dancers are local residents, this year’s event brought in dancers from outside Bloomington.

Janet Beckman travelled to Bloomington from her home in Jasper, Ind., for the event..
“We had just done a dance for life in Jasper that I was involved in, and that prompted me to do something else,” she said.

Dancers ranged from 9 years old to older than 50 and even included family members, such as mother-son duo Darrelyn and Alex Valdez.

Both hip-hop dancers in the area, the Valdez's became involved with Thrill The World in 2009 and have participated ever since.

“Any dancing event we can participate in, we are always there,” Darrelyn Valdez said.

Suzin Snyder and her daughter Autumn Siney have also been involved since 2009.

“We have done it the past three years,” Snyder said. “It seems to get bigger and more of an event every year.”

The dancers said what made the event fun was the sense of community.

“It’s great to dance with people of all ages and skill level,” first-year dancer Allana Radecki said. “I’ve been involved in a lot of community events, and this is one of the great ones.”