NECC Students and Professors Perform HGTV Flash Mob
NECC students and their professors got a taste of Hollywood last weekend when they were filmed performing a flash mob for a new HGTV (Home and Garden) show that will be nationally televised in the fall.
Nine students and Professors Michelle Deane, Marc Mannheimer, and Susan Sanders spent nine hours last Saturday learning the dance, performing the dance, and being interviewed for the show.
“It was such a great experience for our students,” said Michelle Deane, coordinator of the college’s dance program. “We had to learn and perform the dance in just one day.”
The show follows a couple who recently purchased a home in Essex, MA with a backyard that is overgrown and in drastic need of a makeover. Neighbors, professional landscapers, and the NECC student dancers and theater majors all pitch in to help, surprising the homeowners with a choreographed flash mob at the beginning and end of the project.
“The couple was floored,” said Deane. “We all danced around them.”
Producers interviewed Professors Deane and Mannheimer and the student dancers on camera and theater student Maurice “Mo” Peterson was recruited to play the role of a bricklayer.
A producer from HGTV contacted the college a couple of weeks ago after doing an Internet search and learning that Northern Essex offered both dance and theater programs. Professors Sanders and Deane weren’t sure if they could rally students over the summer but the response was enthusiastic. “As it turns out, our students love HGTV so were very excited about this opportunity,” said Deane.
The broadcast date for the program will be shared as soon as it’s available.
Here are additional photos.