MARSHALL - Would you dare to shake your groove thing behind random strangers' backs? Southwest Minnesota State University freshmen Kristen Ward and Molly Zellmer did. What's more they filmed it and sent it to comedian Ellen DeGeneres where it aired Feb. 2 on her talk show, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
"We are big fans of her show," said Ward. "We have Ellen parties every day at 4 p.m."
When DeGeneres announced a new segment on her show, "Ellen's Dance Dare," in which people film themselves dancing around unaware passersby and post it on YouTube, Ward said, "we're going to do this."
Article Photos
Photo by Karin Elton
Southwest Minnesota State University freshmen Kristen Ward of Crystal, left, and Molly Zellmer of Janesville recreate their dance moves on Anna Surprenant of Sleepy Eye, seated left, and Heather Evans of Pipestone. Surprenant and Evans recently filmed Ward and Zellmer dancing behind unsuspecting students. A clip of the film aired Feb. 2 on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Ward and Zellmer, along with fellow SMSU freshmen Heather Evans and Anna Surprenant, set aside an afternoon and started filming. Their first location was the SMSU library, of course. The camera focuses on a sign saying "EXTREME QUIET FLOOR." Evans and Surprenant used a small digital camera and hid as unobtrusively as possible, framing an unsuspecting student in view as well as Zellmer, who frantically does the "vogue," "crazy legs" and the "Saturday Night Fever" disco pointy fingers move before the student notices something is not quite right.
At another location, Surprenant said, she had to tuck herself into some rolled up wrestling mats which were placed against a wall to get the shot of Ward and Zellmer dancing behind some students walking down a hallway.
Surprenant edited the video, added music and uploaded it to YouTube, a website where users can view and share videos. Surprenant linked it to DeGeneres' show's website to enter it in the "Ellen's Dance Dare" contest.
The girls received a message on Facebook that the show was going to include a clip of their video in a montage of dancing videos.
Zellmer was sick that day and received the message in time to watch the show. The others watched it later online.
"We were really excited," said Evans.
They are eligible for the grand prize, which is to be flown out to DeGeneres' show and dance.
The girls said they had a lot of fun doing it and had to keep themselves from giggling during filming.
The link to the video is: