If youโve ever been to the airport, youโll know that itโs quite a tedious affair. People mill around in limbo. Theyโre usually jetlagged, hungry, and waiting for their flight to their destination or back home.
But travelers in the Denver International Airport on November 22, 2011, were in for a special surprise.
The plan to catch the crowd off guard was organized by DIAโs Art and Culture Program, but the incredible moves were carefully choreographed by Ceth Stifel, Joseph DeMers, and a woman named Lark Mervine.
Lark had spent her whole life preparing for a moment like this one.
The multi-talented Lark, who is also a makeup artist and esthetician, began to train as a dancer when she was just a young girl. She began with jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, and tap.
Taking inspiration from the jazz era and combining it with her extraordinary modern dancing skills, she teaches aspiring dancers of all ages and levels how to shine.
But Lark has a special place in her heart for swing dancing.
In a video thatโs been viewed more than four million times, Lark leads a group of talented dancers through their silky-smooth jazz routine in the Jeppesen Terminal โ a large open space that attracts the most foot traffic in the airport.
The showstopper begins when six couples appear out of nowhere and the jazz song โIn the Moodโ begins to bop through the speakers.
It quickly becomes clear that this is a flash mob!
Flash mobs usually come in the form of well-rehearsed dances โ the performers assemble in a public space and perform in a manner that seems spontaneous. The element of surprise results in a rare sense of delight for everyone who has ever been lucky enough to witness one.
Historically, flash mobs come in all shapes and sizes โ from just a few individuals to thousands of people.
Larkโs group begins to swing with their partners, and the crowd seems confused at first. But itโs not long before people begin to drop their bags and stop to watch.
Soon, the crowd around the performers grows denser as more and more people stand to watch, spellbound.
People young and old begin to smile nostalgically. Something magical is happening.
The rolling, seemingly effortless motions of the dancers and the classy brass music is transporting the onlookers back in time โ to the Roaring 20s, where Lindy Hop and big bands were swinging in New York.
The Lindy Hop, also known as the Jitterbug, was the most popular musical style in America in the 1920s. Young people from all over America would stay out late in ballrooms and swing all night.
And, even though they are incorporating a modern twist to their partnered swing dancing, the performers have captured the essence of that bygone era perfectly.
Now, the dance moves are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The men dip their partners and the women begin to execute flawless acrobatic flips over their shoulders โ to gasps of delight from the growing crowd.
Cheers and whistles ripple through the Jeppesen Terminal.
The flash mob performance was all masterminded by Caryn Carrasco, who is the founder and executive director of Community-Minded Dance โ a non-profit organization that strives to enrich the Denver community through dance.
โThe great thing about dance is that it crosses all boundariesโwhere youโre from, how much money you have,โ Caryn told a reporter for National Endowment for the Arts. โItโs a cultural exchange of the heart, and it puts people in a room or space together that maybe if it wasnโt for this one commonality, they would not be. So people talk and interact that wouldnโt ordinarily have that opportunity to do so.โ
And what better way to encourage people to join dance casses than a flash mob?!
โWhat we hope is that each person, if nothing else, will really walk away and feel like they are an advocate for the artsโthat they feel that the arts have had an amazing, positive impact on their life and theyโve opened doors for them for communication, for meeting other people, and for traveling to other places in the world for music and dance,โ Caryn explained to National Endowment for the Arts.
Since 1999, Caryn has headed the process for a cultural revival of American swing music and dance in Denver.
By the time the performance comes to a close, throngs of people have gathered. They crowd around the dancers, and some even watch the performance from the second floor. And everyone is smiling.
To see the flash mob swing dance in the Denver International Airport, watch the video below. Youโll be tapping along in no time, guaranteed!
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