By Emily Parkhurst

On Saturday, Oct. 25, members of the Gray-New Gloucester Middle School drama club “Green Curtain Theater” will attempt to break the world record for the largest number of people dancing to Michael Jackson’s 1982 song Thriller. This worldwide event will include participants from 96 cities across the U.S. as well as Australia, China, Scotland, Germany and many others.

“Zombie dancers” from grades six, seven and eight will take to the floor at precisely 2 p.m. EST, which will correspond with locations all over the world that are also registered to participate.

“Thrill the World” was developed in 2005 by dance instructor Ines Markeljevic “to bring dance to people all over the world,” according to the organization’s web site. Each year around Halloween an event is scheduled where groups all over the

world simultaneously dance to Thriller in their attempt to break the world record for most number of people doing the same dance at once. Currently 197,569 Canadian elementary school children hold the world record for simultaneously doing the hokey-pokey at 681 different locations across Canada.

“We want to remind everyone that before you believed you couldn’t dance, you did (dance). We want to connect the world in fun, celebration and dance,” reads their mission statement.

The public is invited to witness this terrifying event as well as to attend a reception immediately after the dance. The “Green Curtain Theater” dancers has been practicing their undead moves for weeks and are excited to show them off as they compete to set a new world record.