reversing climate change through DANCE

A couple days ago I got a facebook message telling me to put on something blue and go to a park by the waterfront to learn a dance. I looked in my closet. Blue jeans were the bluest thing I had. I threw them on and went to join my first-ever flash mob.

So what was the point? The flash mob was organized by Generation Zero, a student-run environmental group focused on climate change. The blue clothes were supposed to represent the rising sea level and its impact on tiny coastal cities like Wellington due to thermal expansion (ocean water takes up more space as it warms) and glacial melt. There are naysayers, since small island countries don't seem to be at risk yet. But if sea level rise continues, the future could hold more serious repercussions than a crowd of dancers in a shopping center.

150 kids in blue t-shirts and indigo glitter paint met at the park and learned the dance to the tune of a Maori song. There was jumping, running in place, dancing about, and then a haka complete with stabbing motions and thigh-slapping (which had to be nixed since it's culturally insensitive for girls to do the haka). Then we covered up our blue clothes, filtered off to Cuba Street in small groups. A group of 40 people with a boombox and a bongo drummer started the dance. In the next verse, everyone else stripped off their sweaters and flooded into the street from the shops and bars. It was great fun. My adrenaline's still pumping.

I'm there in the non-blue tank top, actually doing the correct dance move and looking in the right direction. And to think I nearly got kicked out of our high school production of Grease because of my terrible coordination skills. If only the director could see me now.

Did we change the world? Probably not. But we did get a solid round of applause at the end.

Tremendous update! Someone made a video and put in on Youtube. This may be my first time ever on Youtube. I am famous in my own head.