As some of you may know, I have a personal fondness for public displays of dancing.  I found a thoroughly entertaining video entitled “Where the Hell is Matt?” (see video below) that I just became aware of recently.  I really got a lift out of it as I’m sure the other 3 million plus people have who’ve already seen it and pushed the “Like” button.  It appears to be the brain-child of Matt Harding and Melissa Nixon, with Harding, who now resides in Seattle, Washington, being the face of this project.  This apparently is Harding’s latest accomplishment that is accompanied by a wonderful song that he and Alicia Lemke wrote the lyrics to.  Matt has other “Dance” videos that go back to 2006 but this recent one seems to depart from the single, corny performances of him dancing off-rhythm in exotic locations around the world to other people’s music.

In this 2012 video, Matt gets local inhabitants at each location to join him in a cadence that works well with the Alicia Lemke vocal of “Trip the Light”. (see full lyrics below)   “Dance 2012” visits some 71 locations in 52 countries, 1 aircraft carrier and a great barrier reef.

From Athens to Zürich, Afghanistan to Zimbabwe there was a shared sense of delight and commonality between the people of these cultures and this white guy from Seattle.  In countries as corrupt as Hungary and Serbia, as oppressive as North Korea and Syria, as impoverished as Haiti, Rwanda and Namibia, to those countries who have some of the highest standards of living in the world, people of every faith, almost every language and varying political view points, smiled joyously and seemed to take great pleasure in moving to the rhythm of the music.  The barriers we have all created for ourselves that keep us apart and at odds with each other way too often seem to be non-existent when the universal languages of music and dance take hold.

It is worth noting that the faces of the Syrian participants were pixellated so their identities to authorities could be shielded.  Syria is currently undergoing a revolution where the government is killing their own people to prevent a regime change held onto by the Assad family.  In the Maldives Islands, the people there are faced with losing their homes as global warming melts ice caps and glaciers around the planet, raising sea levels in such places that families who have inhabited some of these islands for centuries are now forced to relocate to higher ground on other islands.  How life altering to see that some of these people are still willing to share an aspect of humanity that heals rather than destroys life.

It seems a shame that people who can share a common bond with others around the world so easily are not the ones in leadership roles.  Instead we seem to always find ourselves governed by those who too often appeal to our baser instincts of rivalry and greedy self-interests that fosters old animosities and strengthens the corporate ownership mentality; both of which override what’s best for most people everywhere.

Harding danced with cultural tribesmen, thinly clad Caribbean show girls, wheel-chair patients and even a large sea lion at the San Diego Zoo.  These global performances in union with the theme of commonality expressed in the accompanying music is something that should be shown before the beginning of every state and national legislative assembly, the UN, corporate board meetings and especially in churches, temples, synagogues and mosques around the world to show how we all share something that brings us together rather than the messages of division too often heard in these places.

It won’t ensure world peace but it may set the mood for some to reduce the bitter narratives that seem to embroil these institutions.  If nothing else it will be a great substitute for the lengthy rhetoric that fills the room when people in leadership talk of peace and harmony while actually doing very little to accomplish it.

As a side bar note, I found myself enthralled with this video and have had an eerie feeling strike me that recalled a scene in an old sci-fi movie made during the Cold War days where human interaction of this kind could disappear almost entirely as a result of mankind’s mismanagement of our natural resources.  In the 1971 film,“The Omega Man”, the Charlton Heston character, Army doctor, Col. Robert Neville, sits isolated in his fortress home watching a film clip from the 1969 rock festival “Woodstock” after the earth’s population has been almost completely annihilated from biological warfare between China and the old Soviet Union.  Those people on the celluloid film are his only contact with a humanity that no longer exist and knows he will never see again in his lifetime.

List of locations in Video

1. Al-Muzahmiyya, Saudi Arabia
2. Athens, Greece
3. Bali, Indonesia
4. Baltimore, Md.
5. Barcelona, Spain
6. Beijing, China
7. Beirut, Lebanon
8. Belgrade, Serbia
9. Boise, Idaho
10. Bratislava, Slovakia
11. Budapest, Hungary
12. Cairo, Egypt
13. Cambridge, Mass.
14. Caracas, Venezuela
15. Cleveland, Ohio
16. Damascus, Syria
17. Denver, Colo.
18. Detroit, Mich.
19. Dresden, Germany
20. Edinburg, Scotland
21. Erbil, Iraq
22. Great barrier Reef, Australia
23. Helsinki, Finland
24. Hong Kong, China
25. Houston, Tex.
26. Jerusalem, Israel
27. Kabul, Afghanistan
28. Kalafasi, Solomon Islands
29. Kapong, Thailand
30. Karachi, Pakistan
31. Kigali, Rwanda
32. Kyoto, Japan
33. League City, Tx.
34. Lesedi, South Africa
35. Lyon, France
36. Manchester, England
37. Maui, Hawaii
38. Medellin, Columbia
39. Melbourne, Australia
40. Milan, Italy
41. Moscow, Russia
42. New Orleans, La.
43. Oakland, Calif.
44. Opuwo, Namibia
45. Philadelphia, Pa.
46. Poria, Papua New Guinea
47. Port-au-Prince, Haiti
48. Port of Spain, Trinidad
49. Prague, Czech Republic
50. Pyongyang, North Korea
51. Quezon City, Phillipines
52. Rafah, Gaza Strip
53. Rangali Island, Maldives
54. Robin, Island, South Africa
55. Rome, Italy
56. Ruwa, Zimbabwe
57. San Diego, Calif
58. San Jose, Costa Rica
59. San Juan, Puerto Rico
60. Schuykill Haven, Pa.
61. Seatle, Washington
62. Seville, Spain
63. St, Petersburg, Russia
64. Tallinn, Estonia
65. Taoyuan City, Taiwan
66. Terelj, Mongolia
67. Toronto, Canada
68. Toulon, France
69. USS Abraham Lincoln, Pacific Ocean
70. Vienna, Austria
71. Zürich, Switzerland

SONG LYRICS:  Trip The Light

If all the days that come to pass
Are behind these walls
I’ll be left at the end of things
In a world kept small

Travel far from what i know
I’ll be swept away
I need to know
I can be lost and not afraid

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light

Remember we’re lost together
Remember we’re the same
We hold the burning rhythm in our hearts
We hold the flame

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light
Source: LYBIO.net

I’ll find my way home
On the Western wind
To a place that was once my world
Back from where I’ve been

And in the morning light I’ll remember
As the sun will rise
We are all the glowing embers
Of a distant fire

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light

Come on and trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
We’re gonna trip the light

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light

Music: Garry Schyman ©
Lyrics: Alicia Lemke and Matt Harding ©

Posted by lbwoodgate in Music Tags: Alicia Lemke, global commonalities, Great Barrier Reef, Maldive, Matt Harding, music and dance as universal languages, Seattle, Travel, world brotherhood