Dancing youth entertain Valentine crowd

CEBU, Philippines - A throng of young volunteers crashed inside a mall in Lapu-Lapu City yesterday and surprised lovers, families and friends with a flash mob dance on Valentine's Day.

"This is the first time that the city had made this kind of activity," Nicole Balao of the Lapu-Lapu City Tourism Office said yesterday.

Balao said the idea came from the Mayor's Office and was pushed through by the City Tourism Office.

The flash mob presentation started with a group of teenagers in their casual clothes supposedly acting a "lovers' quarrel" scene. As soon as the crowd noticed the drama, they then began the surprise dance to entertain the spectators.

Prior to the flash mob, Balao said they coordinated with different establishments and their security, as well as with the tourist police of Lapu-Lapu City Police Office, so that they would be aware of the activity.

The flash mob started around 12 noon at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport where the whole stretch of the arrival hall was filled with young dancing people from different barangays of the city.

The dancers, composed of 100 adolescents, held a two-week practice to familiarize the steps and routines.

After a planned drama inside the mall, teenagers took off their jackets and long polo sleeves and revealed all their red shirts and danced slow to the tune of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud," followed by Pit Bull's upbeat  "Fireball" song with a twist of "Bang bang" music of Jessie J, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande.

The "Free Yourself" song ended up the six-minute dance presentation and heart-shaped chocolate pops were given out to the watching crowd.

The youth also danced at the city's public market in Barangay Poblacion where bystanders, fish and vegetable vendors, jeepney and tricycle dispatchers and kargadors in the area stopped from their work to watch the Valentine-related activity.

Aside from Mactan airport and Gaisano Island Mall in Barangay Pajo and the city's public market, there will be five more places that the flash mob dancers will present, Balao said.

These include the Bridge Park under Marcelo Fernan Bridge, the Super Metro Mall in Barangay Pajo, the plaza in Barangay Poblacion, Mactan Shrine and The Outlets in Tamiya area, Barangay Basak.

"Aside from celebrating love, we are also promoting the city's brand," Balao said.  (FREEMAN)