Here's what I saw last Saturday
About 400 people in the town centre that came in specifically for the dancing.
100s of young, deprived locals that have had free dance/exercise classes from a professional.
A town centre alive with people dancing and enjoying themselves and taking away a positive memory of being in somthing that they'll remember for a long time. The young people were buzzing with excitement about being involved.
People spending money in shops whilst waiting - whether it was a pie in Greggs or chocolate. I know that I spent about £15 in town that I wouldn't normally have done on a Saturday and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
Something that will promote Accrington. The quality of the video isn't brilliant but that's not really important because it shows people enjoying being in the town centre. It is also part of a much wider project called LET which is promoting Burnley, Blackburn and Accrington - in the Arts world, it's made Accrington part of a much bigger whole. Anyone who wants literature on the LET project let me know and I'll send it to them. Otherwise look on
www.creativityworks.org
A local, new creative business being supported. As part of the project, Cassandra is also getting business and financial support free from Business Link and Creative Lancashire, including free IT training and free financial training.
Finally, to the accusations that it was not spontaneous I would argue that very few of them actually are. The one in the shopping mall was clearly not spontaneous - there were about 30 camera angles for a start from which they were filming. The song and singers had clearly been rehearsed - as had the ones on the T-Mobile ads and the majority of others. It doesn't matter how you find out or how you learn the dance, the point is that it appears to be random or spontaneous to the crowds who are caught up in it.