IT'S THE dance craze that's sweeping the nation and on a rainy Monday night at Leatherhead Leisure Centre, a new Harlem Shake was born.
The performance saw gym-goers and Zumba dancers come together to show off their best moves for the camera, attracting 37 participants.
The online phenomenon – originally inspired by the music video to bass music producer Baauer's track, Harlem Shake – involves filming a group of people going about their daily business before suddenly exploding into action, dancing and jumping around repetitively.
Leisure centre customer service advisor Lucy Walmsley said: "I came up with the idea to do it for fun. Then I thought if we could get as many people as possible that would be amazing.
"It was quite a short space of time to advertise it and bring it all together, because it only went up on the website on Friday.
"As a result, we didn't get as many people as we'd have liked but it was still really good.
"We had a complete mix of people, it was random. The ages ranged from six to 60."
Gym-goers came straight from their work-outs to join in the fun, along with a group from the 7pm Zumba class at the centre, run by Lee Askew.
The video starts looking like an ordinary exercise class, with everyone doing the same movements.
As is traditional for Harlem Shakes, there is initially just one person in the middle dancing – in this case, gym customer David Rapley, wearing a skeleton costume and a motorcycle helmet.
"We were going have a member of staff doing it but David just turned up in a really great costume so we got him to do it," said Miss Walmsley.
"When the beat dropped, everyone just went crazy. There were people throwing balls around and all sorts.
"It was a really fun atmosphere. We said to people they could dress up or just come wearing their gym stuff if they wanted, but pretty much everyone dressed up.
"I think the turn-out was great for how long we had to do it."
