AYCC Flash Mob Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S2T5vPHjS8&feature=player_embedded

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) is the Australian group of the Youth Climate Movement (in the U.S. we have the EAC –the Energy Action Coalition). The Australian Youth Climate Coalition is a non-partisan, non-profit coalition that aims to inform, inspire and mobilize the generation in the struggle for climate justice and a clean energy future." They want to build a generation-wide movement to solve the climate crisis. The AYCC organized the Australian Power Shift Conference which was a youth summit for shifting to clean energy globally. This conference was concluded with a flash mob outside the Sydney Opera House. The flash mob involved hundreds of young people dancing on the steps as a “creative protest” for Power Shift. What they wanted were three things: Green Jobs for our generation, a Power Shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and 50% by 2020 carbon pollution reduction targets for Australia.

These environmentalists used a form of theatre to get their message across. I see them to be not unlike playwrights. They have a message to share with Sydney –with the world –and they used theatre to get that message out there.

This “flash mob dance” has all of the five necessary elements for theatre.

1. Storytelling

The “story” or message being told through this performance is that the Australian youth is ready and committed to change and clean alternative energy. Through their massive amount of participants and the energy they had in their dance, they showed that they are aware of the environmental issues in Australia, and that they have something to say about it. Ultimately, they are saying that something will be done –and that they are ready to be the ones to do it.

2. Costuming

They AYFF flash mob dance kept it pretty simple. All of the participants wore green or black Power Shift t-shirts and green hard hats. I think they dressed alike in order to show that they are unified and working together. There was also a man dressed as the earth and a break dancer dressed as a polar bear. Polar bears have sort of become a symbol of the environmental movement, due to global warming.

3. Spectacle

This entire performance was based on spectacle. It’s a spectacle when random people on the street start dancing, doing ballet and tap dancing. It’s definitely memorable to see something so out of place as this. But the real spectacle of this performance was the insane number of people involved. They had a few hundred people dancing in the street and on the steps of an opera house. This is not something that their “audience” is likely to forget for a while.

4. Symbolic Gesture/Behavior

The spinning/happy earth is clearly symbolism that everyone can work to create a “spinning/happy earth” in real life. But even more than that, the dancing hundreds of people is symbolism, as well. The fact that there were hundreds of people was their way of saying that there is a massive amount of people who are interested in clean alternative energy and that with this large amount of people, they will get something accomplished. Their dancing symbolized how ready, eager and able they are to achieving their goal.

5. Temporal Interplay

This entire performance was based on audience reaction. A flash mob is nothing without unsuspecting people to surprise. At first, the people on the street were confused -but amused- by the random couple of dancing people in the street. Once there were hundreds of people dancing, the audience really became an audience. People stopped where they were –some sitting on the ground to watch this dance. As soon as the dance was over, the performers scattered, ending as quickly and spontaneously as they started.