Thriller

This post needs a description and a disclaimer.

Chris and I knew months in advance that we had to have a talent for the family vacation. We assumed everyone would count us out this year, since we had a new baby. We figured our family would expect us just to throw something together last minute. We decided we had to come up with something good. I honestly can't remember why I thought of doing the Thriller dance, but I did. I have always thought it would be a cool, timeless dance to know. At the time I forgot how much of a dancer I am NOT, and didn't take in to consideration Chris' dancing skills. We just agreed it would be fun and decided to do it. We agreed that if we were gonna do it we wanted to do it well. So, we began to break it down and try to learn each step on the internet. This process became tedious and frustrating. Learning this dance was not as easy as we had thought it would be. And we were only learning it at half time. We thought there was no way we would learn it. We almost threw in the towel. After a break from rehearsing, we ended up splurging $20 and ordered the DVD "Thrill the World". This DVD breaks down each move and puts them all to words. This ended up being very helpful. We printed out all the dance moves and learned all the words in our heads. We practiced for about an hour, 2-3 days a week, and slowly but surely it started to stick. I hate to admit it, but Chris was a much faster learner than I was. "Shoulder step, nothing step, shoulder step, shoulder step, booty bounce, booty bounce" and other dance moves ran threw my head at work, as I tried to sleep, in the car, on the train. I don't think I will ever forget the words! Soon, I got it! I even practiced a little at work (ignoring a few weird looks!) When I finally felt confident that we were gonna be able to compete (3 weeks before vaca) Chris decided we needed to add a twist. He decided that he didn't want to get up off the ground like zombies awakening from the dead to start off our performance. He wanted to add some Ivie humor to the routine (imagine that!) He thought that we should come out singing a cheesy duet and make everyone think that was our talent. Then, at the first chorus have the record skip and then go right into our Thriller routine. Well, I thought this idea was terrible because I can't dance, but I REALLY can't sing! Chris ultimately convinced me it didn't matter it was just a joke. He had his friend mix the music with a record scratch in between. I lucked out because his friend forgot to do the karaoke version, and the singers were still on our mix. I was very happy that all I had to do was lip synch. I am still embarrassed by it- but it did end up being funny! It was also fun to learn something together. I am excited to learn a new talent with Chris!

The video is below- the music isn't very loud, so you probably will want to turn your volume up as loud as you can.

I hope you all enjoy, or at least get a good laugh! We did win the contest! And then performed it again for the island inpromptu!

Ryan- we did this to make you proud. And don't worry- we promise to perform it at your wedding.

I have been struggling all day to get this to upload and I finally had Chris break it into two videos and it worked! Thank goodness! So, watch the top one first and then the bottom. It was all one uninterrupted performance live, but this is the best I could do on the blog.