Business & Tech

Harlem Shake Hits Aquidneck Island

Middletown's Able Body and Mind and The Salve Regina basketball team do the Harlem Shake.

What is the Harlem Shake?  


The Harlem Shake is a worldwide YouTube dance contagion that originated with comedian and video blogger Filthy Frank. On Jan. 30, he uploaded a YouTube of several costumed people dancing to the song "Harlem Shake" by Baauer, and it quickly went viral. See the attached video for Filthy Frank's video. 

A group of teenagers known as The Sunny Coast Skate, from Queensland Australia, were the first to imitate the Harlem Shake, which ignited a chain reaction of Harlem Shake uploads to YouTube. Today, a Harlem Shake search on YouTube returns more than 200,000 results.
  
It’s contagious and nobody appears to be immune. Harlem Shake videos have been created by the Norwegian Army, CNN's Anderson Cooper, the Miami Heat and even Egyptian protesters.

Harlem Shake Hits Aquidneck Island

Recently, Aquidneck Island has caught the Harlem Shake bug. Watch Middletown’s Able Body and Mind and the Salve Regina basketball team rock the shake in the attached YouTube clips.

Across Rhode Island, The Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island High School Cheerleading and the University of Rhode Island Island have done the Harlem Shake.

The ironic part is, the Internet meme is not the Harlem Shake at all.

The actual Harlem Shake is a style of dance introduced in the early 80s by a Harlem resident named "Al B". The dance became mainstream in 2001 when G. Dep featured the Harlem shake in his music video "Let's Get It". During street interviews in Harlem, residents have said the despite its name, the Internet sensation is not the real Harlem Shake and some say it is a mockery of the original dance.

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