Some songs are just destined to be iconic, but when an pop superstar releases one of those songs, it can’t be stopped. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is just such a song. It has come to epitomize the artist and the Halloween season ever since its release in 1982.
Icons like Jackson and “Thriller” never go out of style, and that’s why the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Maria Valley has no problem recruiting kids each year to join a mass choreographed dance performance to the song. Many kids look forward to the annual dance event, including Robert Bruce Elementary sixth grader Jaime-Angel Vazquez, who told the Sun that he doesn’t visit the Boys and Girls Club’s Evans Park Unit regularly unless Halloween is approaching.
“I’ve been coming here more and more because of the ‘Thriller’ dance,” Vazquez said. “It’s fun to do this over and over, because I’ve been coming here and doing this for like three years now.”
The kids from several different Boys and Girls Club sites came together for a flash mob performance at the Grimsley Haunt on
Oct. 21, explained Evans Park Unit Director Yesica Sanchez, who said the kids will also perform at the World Dance for Humanity event in Santa Barbara on Oct. 29.
“They’re going to dress up as zombies, and maybe some bride zombies, it depends on if they bring their own costume,” she said. “Some of them will just bring their own clothes, maybe rip them up, and paint their faces.”
The kids also have a dance to “Beat It” prepared, and will perform it before the “Thriller” dance. Each Boys and Girls Club site has its own Halloween party with a performance as well as a chance for the kids to dress up again.
The annual program allows kids in multiple grades to get together and dance in a choreographed ensemble. Rice Elementary School third grader Darcy Cruz said she was excited to dance with her peers, especially to a song by Michael Jackson, who she said was “cool.”
“It’s fun to dance because you get to learn new moves,” Cruz said. “I liked how all the zombies danced with him in the video.”
The Evans Park Unit of the Boys and Girls Club will dance again at their Halloween Carnival on Oct. 28 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Evans Park Unit, 200 W. Williams St., Santa Maria. More info: bgcsmv.org.
Cruz’s classmate Ruby Zamora, also a third grader at Rice, is on the same page with learning new dance moves too, even naming her favorites.
Zamora explained that the Boys and Girls Club gives her a chance to be creative after school regularly, not just with the Halloween dance program.
“We get to do our homework and arts and stuff,” she said. “We do drawings and they post them up on the wall, whoever’s is the best,” Zamora said.
The arts is one of the Boys and Girls Club’s core areas of focus, explained Director of Academic Success Carmen Mendoza. The other core areas are character and leadership development, health and life skills, education and career development, and fitness and recreation.
The club organizes a public exhibit of visual arts each year as well as the dance program and other chances for engagement in the performing arts. It’s important for a young person’s development, Mendoza said, and it’s an opportunity not always available to the kids.
“They don’t get this at school,” she said. “With the budget cuts they don’t have the arts or performing arts, so we get to provide something they don’t have at school.”
The “Thriller” dance is also a fun excuse to dress up as something scary. For kids as young as Leo Pelayo, who is in first grade at Rice Elementary School, things that go bump in the night might be intimidating, but not when he gets to dress up as one himself.
When asked if he was scared of monsters or zombies, Pelayo gave a response that was short and to the point.
“No,” he said, “because they’re fake, they’re not real.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne is going as a big bottle of Sriracha sauce this year. Contact him at [email protected].
