Choreographed Dance & Flash Mobs

Choreographed dance in all its glamor and mega-glitz is a wonderful modern invention. Or is it? 

With such sensational musical spectacles, scientifically honed smut decor, and competitive dance shows on the mainstream media networks, would anyone have guessed it could all have started in China nearly 800 years ago?

Lets start with Flash Mobs. These are "a sudden mass gathering, unanticipated except for the participants", the public performances range from musical farces like "Hey Teach!" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ0pFW-c8mQ) to large electronically synchronized time-stopping mind-fucks (Frozen Central Station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo) . . .

    . . . these well planned, rehearsed, public displays, as well as choreographed dance, are the modern expression of none other than the China's own - GREAT ULTIMATE BOXING!

(errrh, not convinced?)

For a better comparison here is a more common "Tai Chi" display:

"Thriller" anyone? Michael Jackson was neither Black nor White - he was Chinese at heart.

But to really drive the main point home, consider this common choreographed "flash mob" also known as TAI CHI . . . 

In 1374 a small village located in Henan, China with the name Chenjiagou, (literally "Chen Family Ditch") the birth of Tai Chi is vaguely recorded. It serves as a defensive fighting technique, a moving meditation, a healing medicine practice, a metaphoric blend of the 5 basic elements, and Yin Yang principles.

Another common account tells how "the mystical taiji (Tai Chi) legend of the Taoist monk, Zhang Sanfeng, allegedly invented taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan) through dreaming about or observing a fight between a snake and a crane in Wu-dang Mountains."*

And from such grand beginnings the "Great Ultimate Boxing" - a literal translation of Tai Chi Chuan - has grown into countless different forms while passing through various family traditions of China where it was eventually released to the international scene only in the last 100 years. Since its global fame and bastardization, primarily by Keanu Reeves, it is now easy to see how flash mobs and the glamorized dance styles of MTV have borrowed from this great Chinese Invention:

a) dozens, often hundreds of people gather suddenly in public

b) they occupy any space necessary for the performance

c) Tai Chi enthusiasts then exhibit themselves as if on stage to the world in an elegant & entertaining manner

. . . but most importantly . . . 

d) it was all rehearsed and choreographed beforehand! Offering us a seamless and sophisticated experience that modern dance and mob-scenes are just catching up with.


Stay Zen my friend.




*http://www.indigenouspeople.net/ChineseLit/taichiold.html