'Beat It' Performance: Dance Like You've Never Danced Before!
You know what's awesome? When you can justify a self-promoting rehash of your favorite early 1980s dance moves as an exercise in the interpretation of popular culture and theories of shared memory. Not unlike your senior thesis on the Caine-Hackman theory, choreographer Erin McMonagle is using her community drop-in "Beat It" classes as a socio-intellectual attempt at, um, teaching all of the dance moves from Michael Jackson's 1983 video to anyone interested.
In what is sure to be the most moving event to hit midtown since Cats, McMonagle's "performance piece" will culminate on July 4th, where all past and present participants will be asked to perform the "Beat It" choreography en masse. Yep, that's it. It's Independence Day art! As Tale of Two Cities puts it, "Why not why not celebrate the birth of our great nation by making a complete ass of yourself - without the generous aid of alcohol?"
