Lakehead University students jumped on the Harlem Shake trend Friday in Canadian style.
The dance craze, which is sweeping campuses and offices around the world, originated in the 1980s in New York City, but has gone viral in 2013 backed by Brooklyn DJ Baauer’s electronica track used in a reported 12,000 or more videos on You Tube and other video-sharing sites.
Students dressed up in all manner of costumes for the event.
The 30-second Lakehead version was recorded on frozen Lake Tamblyn and already has more than 3,000 views.
Not to be outdone, students in the television broadcasting program at Confederation College also joined the craze.
Last, but not least, Thunder Bay skier Michael Somppi and the Alberta World Cup Academy team tried their hand at it.
Here are the rules for shooting your own Harlem Shake video, as compiled by Evansville, Ind. radio station 106.1 Kiss FM:
1. Find the song “Harlem Shake” by Baauer
2. The number of people don’t matter, but the more the merrier
3. The video starts with one person and they must be wearing a helmet or mask
4. Only the person wearing the mask dances for the first 15 seconds, everyone else goes about their business like nothing is happening.
5. Everyone goes completely nuts-o after the lyric, “…and do the Harlem Shake” and the beat drops. This goes on for another 15 seconds.
6. Props. Props. Props. Whatever you can grab for the final 15 seconds to make it as ridiculous as possible.
7. No fancy video editing. The abrupt jump-cut between the two videos is what makes it work.
