He's not here to cause no trouble... he's just here to do the subway shuffle!
It's a reprisal of the "Superbowl Shuffle" song performed by the Chicago Bears football team in 1985 as they were on their way to The Superbowl. Remember that??? If you are 35 years or younger, maybe not...
But something equally as random, fun and creative is brewing on the horizon-- a great, big, fat community dance project, called "Platform," taking place on April 1, at the Brooklyn's Transit Museum. The performance will feature a series of dance routines performed by a mix of professional and novice dancers of all shapes and sizes recounting real-life "subway stories!"
The Brooklyn Arts Council recently gave the idea's creator, Jamie Benson (you may know him around Bed-Stuy as the jovial marketing and communications coordinator for the Noel Pointer Foundation) a Community Arts Fund grant to choreograph and perform his planned takeover with his group known as the Shakedown Dance Collective.
You may recall last year when the Shakedown Dance Collective performance was shut down by the MTA because it caught the attention of so many during their daily commute:
Well, BAC has awarded Benson $1700 dollars to do it again, covering the cost of rehearsal space, costuming, props and a small honorarium to pay participants. Currently, Benson is recruiting people of all shapes, ages and experience levels for this performance.
New recruits will dance with Benson's inclusive dance collective, The Shakedown, and perform on the Museum's platform and inside the historical subway cars.
For more information and to participate, contact Jamie Benson at 323-704-5287 or info@jamiebenson.com.
Also, stay tuned, as The Brooklyn Reader in the coming weeks will bring you behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage of the group preparing for their big performance!
