Matt Harding of Where the Hell is Matt? readily admits that he is famous for dancing badly around the world. Harding has made three videos over the last five years of him flailing about in 80 countries, alongside thousands of other people. The videos are hypnotic and happy and they have garnered, as Harding puts it today in Palm Springs at the TED conference, “100 bajillion views.”Harding even got someone — Stride gum — to pay him to travel around the world and make the last two videos. But he wants to keep the dream alive, so he’s been working to find a twist good enough to merit a fourth edition.
As Harding describes it, one particular dancing incident from the last video stuck out to him, when a choreographer in India taught him some basic Bollywood dance moves. So he got to thinking of making “an old-fashioned MGM musical using the whole world as my stage,” having people from around the world teach him their dances. But his girlfriend and producer, Melissa, a ballet dancer (huh?!), thought that was a terrible idea — the point, after all, is dancing badly. Besides, the scheme would trivalize cultures to a single dance, kind of the opposite of Harding’s feel-good we-are-one message.
So she came up with the idea of teaching people from around the world how to do each other’s dances. Harding loved it. They lack a plan and a sponsor, so the new video is far from a sure thing — but hey, this guy clearly has a way of actually executing his crazy ideas. Today in Palm Springs he taught the TED simulcast audience the Bollywood dance. A video is embedded above, and Harding’s most recently completed video is below.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2009\/02\/04\/where-the-hell-is-matts-next-act-actual-dancing\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_2c2d8b776a6a9bfc4a54e9117e51ad5a","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}