Photo via Flickr user James Allenspach
It's close to midnight
Something evil's lurkin'in the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed
'Cause this is thriller
Thriller at night
And no one's gonna save you
From the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller — “Thriller,” Michael Jackson
Stephen Prince Tate, a dance teacher at Crosstown High School, has a lot of experience teaching steps from Michael Jackson’s hit song “Thriller.”
But, he’s not about teaching all the steps, from the entire song, from beginning to end. Particularly for the flash mob set for Halloween at the Crosstown Concourse building.
In that mob, he’s got a 3-year-old (charged with delivering Vincent Price’s laugh) and a 99-year-old.
Stephen Prince Tate with 3-year-old student
“No way we can do it,” he says.
But teaching them the wiggle-wiggle snap step or the shoulder-shoulder walk, he can do.
Folks are coming from all over Memphis (even Germantown!) for the mob. He’s even teaching the steps online, so if you learn them that way you can participate. Just come early for your zombie makeup (from 2 to 4 p.m.).
“It’s a great dance song,” Tate enthuses.
He notes that it’s a fun dance to teach, and folks seem eager to learn. “There’s no pulling teeth,” he says.
Tate has become so immersed in “Thriller” that it’s infiltrated his dreams, he says.
“I’ve scared myself.”
The “Thriller” Flash Mob is part of Crosstown’s Creep Sweep, which includes a trunk and treat inside the Central Atrium between 4 and 6 p.m. The mob will start sometime after 4 p.m.
