About 800 students congregated on Turlington Plaza on Friday to thrust, bump, grind and flail for about 30 seconds.
When the music stopped, the crowd quickly dispersed as if nothing happened.
This dance routine known as the “Harlem Shake” has gone viral.
The original Harlem Shake video, “DO THE HARLEM SHAKE (ORIGINAL),” was uploaded on Jan. 30, according to an ABC News blog. But, it wasn’t until the “The Harlem Shake v1 (TSCS original),” uploaded on Feb. 2, formed the standards for the videos, according to YouTube Trends. That video has about 11.3 million views. The real dance has Ethiopian roots and began in Harlem, N.Y., in 1981, according to ABC News.
Seth Lindstrom, a 20-year-old mechanical engineering junior, organized the flash mob version of the dance for UF students.
He invited about 100 people to the Facebook event he created, but through social networking, about 1,200 people clicked that they would attend.
With hopes that the event would turn out as planned, Lindstrom, the sound and camera crews arrived on Turlington Plaza around 11:50 a.m.
Before the bumpers and flailers arrived, Karim Hussain, a 20-year-old marketing junior, positioned himself on the outside stairwell of the plaza and filmed Lindstrom standing on a small wooden box, thrusting into the air — shirtless and masked with a Gator head.
That’s the first ingredient to a Harlem Shake video — a lone dancer in a normal setting.
As they filmed, Billy Triggs, a 22-year-old industrial and systems engineering senior, set up his sound system and three speakers.
By 12:20 p.m., they were ready for the dancers.
The banana, Lego man and Santa Claus costumes slowly filed in, and students quickly began to stand shoulder to shoulder.
At 12:40 p.m., there was no way to get to class through the plaza.
Lindstrom took stage on his small platform in the middle. “Harlem Shake” by Baauer began to blast through the speakers. He thrusted by his lonesome while the sea of dancers stood motionless. The beat dropped and the 800 students joined in bumping and flailing.
One dancer, Sabrina Mone, a 20-year-old nursing sophomore, did a front flip over a pole at the front of the crowd.
“I was actually trying to leapfrog over the pole,” she said.
The flash mob ended in the “Go Gators” and “It’s Great to be a Florida Gator” chants.
Afterward, they returned to their daily activities in their Mad Hatter and construction worker costumes.
The video, “Official UF Harlem Shake,” was uploaded Friday night and is one of 40,000 Harlem Shake videos, according to the YouTube Trends.
As of Sunday, Lindstrom’s video had about 197,000 views.
“I definitely wanted to put us on the map,” Lindstrom said.
Turlington Plaza was packed with more than 800 students dancing to “Harlem Shake” by Baauer on Friday afternoon.
