Students Thrill the world

Colin Hutton • Published 4 Nov 2009 09:00

A GROUP of students were "thrilled" to be part of a Michael Jackson-inspired World Record attempt at the weekend.

June Long, from Old Kilpatrick, was one of the make-up artistry students putting zombie make-up on participants recreating the iconic dance from the King of Pop’s hit song Thriller.

Forty people from Clydebank College’s HND make-up artistry course helped out in the third annual Thrill The World event, in which thousands of Jacko fans from around the globe strutted their stuff.

She said: “It was amazing to be involved in something as big as this.”

The talented students took more than two hours to complete the zombie transformations for more than 100 dancers and audience members, in what has been described as an “amazing” event.

June said: “We took part in this as part of our work experience that we have to do for the course.

“When we heard about this everyone jumped at the chance to take part and I think we all thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.

“By the time we had finished doing all the make-up everyone looked fantastic because we have been practising for weeks to make sure that we got the zombie look right.

“The dance routine was absolutely amazing and the hardest bit was trying to keep all of us off the dance floor.”

The event was held in the Assembly Rooms at Glasgow University Union at 1.30am on Sunday October 25 — the exact same time that more than 400 other events were starting worldwide, involving up to 50,000 participants.

Thrill The World was first held in 2006 when 62 dancers were involved in Toronto, Canada.

But when it was held again two years later there were a massive 4,179 dancers in 10 countries.

And the interest in this incredible synchronized event took on even more significance this year after Jackson’s untimely death on June 25.

June, 58, added: “The timing of the event is very topical just now because of what has happened with Michael Jackson, so it really was great to be involved.

“All the students put their own individual stamp on their zombie make-up — so everyone looked slightly different and hopefully really scary.”

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This article appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 03 Nov 09

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