Dancing with "The Thriller"...

Welcome...

You may proceed with caution...

...at your own risk, of course....

You are about to enter the frightening world of

Have you not always wanted to learn that ghoulish dance routine
since the first time you ever saw it?

Well for those who DARE to even try, your TIME has COME....

And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver...
For no mere mortal can resist
The Evil of...
The "Thriller"…

Though not as clear and bright as the DVD, watch the routine on YouTube at:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8&mode=related&search=
full mini-movie version including credits and tag (13 min / 41 sec)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RPa7ZR_fUC4&mode=related&search=
dance and music version including credits and tag (9 min / 27 sec)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RPa7ZR_fUC4
dance only version (2 min / 10 sec)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H6mmTvDUdA
1500 Filipino inmates dance "Michael Jackson's Thriller" (4 min / 28sec)

http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=0A0C3C02921157BF5B5539FAA0D62EC2?contentId=3824950&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1
Terry Chasteen teaching Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' on July 19, 2007 to Fox 5 News reporter Sarah Simmons using the CD version of 'Thriller' and including many of the moves that Michael danced around Ola Ray down the graveyard path. Unlike the DVD version of 'Thriller' , this is the music that all of the clubs will play night after night after night during the week of Halloween. Also included is some sign language for the benefit of the kids who Terry teaches this routine to often plus a lesson in the "Moonwalk". Parts of this taping wound up on Fox 5 News during 3 or 4 segments on July 19th and 20th. Sarah did a GREAT job in so little time, considering that it took Terry and dancer friend Alex 2 to 3 months to perfect the complete choreography from the DVD. By the way, this is only about 1/3 of the full routine.

Purchase your own copy at Sony online and watch the complete performance of this incredible
and very much ahead-of-it's time #1 album,
"Michael Jackson Video Greatest Hits - History"

Thank you for visiting the Photo Gallery
of Michael Jackson's
"Thriller"
at
www.MichaelJacksonsThriller.com

Also, click on the following graphics for information on events to learn segments of....

The "Thriller"

during:
The 4th Saturday of each month at the monthly

with 2 levels of mini-classes, plus dancing...
Please plan to join us every 4th Saturday of each month for a fun-filled evening
of practice and dancing for all levels. Several teachers will be available each week for your assistance.

*******************************************

during
Dancing with The Kids

as well as

and during

Including Gay Games® and Social Ballroom, Latin, Swing & Two Step classes,
followed by dancing & practice with Lambda DanceSport DC members

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Before Halloween of 2005, I plan to have at least 50 or more individuals (including my middle-schoolers)
able to perform this complete routine from beginning to end. In addition, I will personally be signing the
complete song in ASL (I'm over 75% there, already...), so that wherever we perform it, the hearing impaired
will be able to enjoy watching it along with the hearing. The plan is to then perform it in different locations,
as well as during a major "Dance-&-Learn" fund-raising event, all of the proceeds from which will benefit the thousands of orphaned and deprived children of Africa. It will include a format similar to the Chevy Chase Ballroom "Dance-&-Learn Parties", to additionally include this and other entertainment, possibly with the middle-school Promenade Dancing Class performing some of the dances that they've learned. Anyone who may have ideas about the means or possible very large venues for such an event,
please contact Terry at 202-462-0870.

,
"Michael Jackson Video Greatest Hits - History"

It was over 22 years ago when I walked into a video dance club in Columbus, Ohio and was instantly overwhelmed by a penetrating laughter that pierced every corner of the darkness. The evil sound seemed to permeate from all directions at once and I was initially horror-struck as to what this blood-curdling outburst might be. It took another two days before I finally realized from where the frightening sound had come as I once again heard it as a tag at the end of a larger-than-life video performance on the floor-to-ceiling screen of the same disco. This time, however, the eery and frightening laughter took second place to what I had just experienced on the huge screen. That experience was the incredibly entertaining and mesmerizing choreography of Michael Jackson's soon-to-be #1 hit, "Thriller". The LP, from which the single came, became legendary and spawned a record 7 Top 10 hits, including the #1 hits "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller", itself. The awards for the "Thriller" LP continued with 8 American Music Awards, including a Special Award of Merit. It also became one of the highest selling LP's of all times in the world of pop music.
From that day on, I've been fascinated by the dance routine that Michael and his ghoulish, Zombie characters perform on the video of this top selling album. A performance that we always seem to see and hear without fail every Halloween when all of the scary ghosts and goblins on earth make their annual appearances out of their crypts and graves and into the streets of the Halloween weekend.
This year things have changed as the video has actually come out as part of the "Michael Jackson Video Greatest Hits - History" DVD, plunging me head first into the process of analyzing and memorizing the choreography that I have craved to dance from that very first day that I saw it over 22 years ago... My intent was not to create a "For-White-Guys-Who-Can't-Really-Dance" watered down version, but instead to capture every detail and complicated syncopation in the routine, of which there are many. A monumental task, to be sure.
Though quick and incredibly unique, and just as funny and entertaining in staying with the ghoulish, zombie theme of the song, the "Thriller" choreography isn't really unattainable by most people willing to work at it and make half an effort to practice. Especially by learning smaller segments at a time. Admittedly it does take a little concentration and some PMA (positive mental attitude) to accomplish something of this level, but I'm convinced that anyone willing to put his or her mind to it can ultimately come close to perfecting a lot of this unparalleled routine. And in the process introduce themselves to some groundbreaking choreography that was literally decades ahead of it's time when it was first performed in the fall of 1982. (Of course that entails getting the "I can't" mind-set out of the system. A mind-set that I regretably witness far too often in far too many able-bodied individuals. Let's compare to one of my favorite people of all times, Christopher Reeve. Who as a quadriplegic, accomplished much more than many of us will ever come close to and while having a fraction of our natural abilities and never telling himself or everyone else what he "can't" do. We can all learn from such a mind-set. OK, I'll get down off of my soap box...).
Now that I've analyzed and perfected the makings of this unique work of art, I've recently decided to teach different parts of the "Thriller" in some of my classes as a warm-up, as well as in some of the social dance events coming up by request. My first attempt was during the Friday evening Ballroom, Latin & Swing "Promenade Dancing Class" for middle-schoolers in Virginia. I started eighty 6th, 7th & 8th graders on the routine two days before Halloween (an appropriate time of the year for sure) as well as during the October 31st Halloween Sunday Salsa Social Party at the Chevy Chase Ballroom. Though each one included only a small portion of the final product in the first two runs, everyone seemed to get along really well and enjoyed the choreography as much as I (and the middle-schoolers couldn't get enough of it! Almost none of the 80 of them have missed a class since!!).
If you too have had a fantasy of dancing this incrdible choreography, just click on the graphics above to determine the dates and times of some of the events.
By Halloween of next year I hope to have at least 50 people (plus maybe even some of my middle-schoolers) able to dance the complete routine from beginning to end as a possible fund-raiser "Dance-&-Learn Party" open to the public to benefit the south Asian tsunami disaster as well as the hundreds of thousands of orphans and starving children of South Africa who have been ignored in their plight for far too long, already. So join us. You could be one of the dancing Zombies and ghouls performing to this top, top musical hit by next year's Halloween bash. And if we all get really good at it, who knows where it might ultimately take us? (There's NO busines like SHOW business, there's NO business I Know...Thank you and God Bless you, Ethyl Merman...).
Either way the journey and fun of gradually working our way to completion of this high-energy and fun-filled end product, which is still fascinating the masses after over 22 years will be more than worth the time and effort spent in the process. You needn't be experienced as every pattern will be broken down and repeated slowly and in fine detail until everyone gets it. You may purchase the "Michael Jackson Video Greatest Hits - History" DVD at www.sonymusic.com/dvd to see the complete routine (And as you watch it, keep in mind that for those who dare, we won't be leaving out ANY part of it).
The "Michael Jackson Video Greatest Hits - History" is a kaleidoscope of Michael Jackson History and includes the short films of BILLIE JEAN, THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL (LONG VERSION), BLACK OR WHITE, ROCK WITH YOU, BAD (LONG VERSION), THRILLER, BEAT IT, REMEMBER THE TIME, DON'T STOP 'TIL YOU GET ENOUGH, and HEAL THE WORLD. The collection of 10 ground-breaking videos from the King of Pop is worth every cent of the $11.98 that I paid for mine (though I have to admit that I haven't even seen most of the other selections yet since I 'm so consumed with this one...some [including Mother...] might say "a little obsessive/compulsive, maybe?"...).

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Thriller
( Michael Jackson )

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer
Thriller tonight

You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination
But all the while you hear the creature creepin' up behind
You're out of time

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer
Thriller tonight

Night creatures call
And the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escapin' the jaws of the alien this time
They're open wide
This is the end of your life

They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you unless you change the number on your dial
Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together
All thru the night I'll save you from the terrors on the screen
I'll make you see

That it's a thriller, thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghost would dare to try
Girl, this is thriller, thriller night
So let me hold you tight and share a killer, chiller
Thriller here tonight

****************************************************

( Vincent Price )

Darkness falls across the land,
The midnight hour is close at hand,
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'aws neighborhood

And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for “getting down”
Must stand and face the hounds of HELL
And ROT inside a corpsed shell

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of 40,000 years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom

And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver...
For no mere mortal can resist
The Evil of...
The "Thriller"…

Aahh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Aahh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hew hew hew hew hew hew

Michael Jackson
recently won the coveted Diamond Award at the
2006 World Music Awards on November 15th, the 25th Anniversary of
"Thriller"
Visit www.WorldMusicAwards.com