April 15, 2009
Taipei, Taiwan
A video of a flash mob dancing at the train station to “Do Ra Mi” from the “Sound of Music” has been quickly passed around on the internet and gotten over a millions hits on YouTube. I saw the video myself last night and immediately send it along to a few friends who I know would love and appreciate it.
On Huffington Post today, it is revealed that the dancing and video was all part of a promotion for an upcoming reality TV show. The note on Huffington Post quietly implies that since the video is made for commercial purposes, it somehow is less than what is it.
Sure, it was choreographed and staged for a Capitalist cause (and a brilliant promotional piece at that, my hat off to the producers) why should that lessen the joy that we take from it? Yet at the same time, I know for a fact that if I had send along the video with a note to my friends that said, check out this brilliant promo for a TV program , they might still like it, but would they love it the way that we all did? Can we separate the actual intention of the work from the reaction that we derive from it? Why does the intention of it taint our enjoyment?
When I watched the video, my thought was only of joy and there was only a smile on my face. Granted there was a bit of curiosity in me as to what the piece was made for (I assumed that it was just a piece of performance art) but really, I didn’t care. It made my day and took me out of my misery.
Maybe the real question here is why do we not spontaneously dance more often? If we did, then maybe our cynicism would not step in and take away some of the joy that we got from watching all those people dance to a delightful song.
Anyone want to join me?
