flash mob

We’ve been waiting for a special moment to share this Behind the Scenes video with you.

This is the time because….

We’re nearing the end of our annual community campaign for the arts and we’ve been sharing the Splash Dance video with everyone during the campaign because it is such a great way to share our story.

This new video shows all the hard work, fun, and joy of hundreds of people from across the region who came together to create this surprise dance. 

Here’s how it happened.

Last summer, Aaron Betsky of the art museum shared a YouTube video from Belgium with Victoria Morgan of the ballet. The video showed a surprise dance event in a train station to the song "Do Re Mi".

Shortly after that, Victoria told me she’d seen a video beautifully illustrating the way the arts bring people together and make places vibrant and exciting.

I asked her to send me the video and had an immediate reaction: We have to do this in Cincinnati!

Only, rather than using professionals, we could recruit volunteers from all over the region to participate. 

Victoria agreed and together we approached about six other people working in arts organizations to form a team of organizers. Early on, we included reps from Lightborne (as our directors and producers of the video) and MidPoint Music Festival since we wanted to perform the dance on our public square during the kickoff for the festival.

We all sent notes to people at other arts organizations, friends, and family, inviting them to be part of a surprise. We didn’t tell them much – and we made them promise to keep the secret if they wanted to participate.

Over 300 people signed up using an online form hidden from the public. Later we told the volunteers they would be dancing – but not where.

Cincinnati Arts Association donated rehearsal space in the Aronoff and Know Theatre gave us time in their theater and rehearsal rooms. Five local bands donated the music. And two awesome teachers from the ballet’s Rhythm and Motion series choreographed the dance. Sixteen local dancers donated their time to teach the routine to everyone.

We assigned each of the volunteers to one of eight teams and provided numerous rehearsal times over a 3-week period leading up to the dress rehearsal. We also posted a breakdown of the routine on a password-protected website for all of the dancers to use at home.

We used social media to provide clues and energize our team.

The night of the dress rehearsal – in donated space at the Music Hall Ballroom - everyone submitted a release form, picked up a “ta-da” lapel button, and got ready to dance.

When all of the volunteers performed the whole dance together for the first time – many of us were in tears. It was incredibly moving to see all of these people come together for our community – people of all ages, backgrounds, neighborhoods, and experience.

The next day, we surprised everyone on Cincinnati’s Fountain Square – in the pouring rain. We always planned to dance no matter what the weather and despite the deluge, everyone came! For about three minutes, the rain slowed. And we all danced together to show off our city.

Since then, the community has embraced the video – sharing wonderful reactions and asking if we’d please do it again. The dancers did repeat the fun in the sunshine on a Sunday afternoon at Findlay Market and Newport on the Levee. Later, a few of the dancers surprised us at the ArtAlive celebration kicking off our community campaign. Nearly 100,000 people have viewed the video on YouTube and CityBeat readers voted Splash Dance one of the year’s best new things, while the editors gave us an award for Best Arts Promo of 2009.

You can watch the Splash Dance video here. You’ll see that it makes our city look vibrant and alive. That’s what we love.

We encouraged the singers who came from all over the region to stay in the neighborhood after the surprise and explore all the great holiday events in the central business district. Many of the carolers did so and here’s the report back from one of the participants.

We like to organize people for singing and dancing together – and love that they enjoy the sights and sounds of our wonderful neighborhoods at the same time!