Dancing with a star around the world
March 13, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
By hopping around, doing a jig and waving his arms in a silly dance, Matt Harding has become a dancing-fool Internet celebrity and product promoter for chewing gum and a credit card.
He himself is a brand and in China, we'd call him a stir-fried (chaozuo) celebrity.
The American has no message - or maybe just letting go and shaking it is the message - it's just fun, and people get into the spirit and dance with him around the world. He's frolicked in 96 countries so far: in jungles with indigenous tribesmen, in deserts with camel drivers and in the streets with ordinary people. Of course, he's done all the great landmarks.
"The moves are not important. The faces are," Harding told Shanghai Daily. "I always look at people's faces to make sure they smile and are having a good time."
He freely admits he doesn't know how to dance, hasn't been to college ("there's other ways to fill your head") and on his website he calls himself a "deadbeat from Connecticut."
Last month, Harding in was in Shanghai, fresh from a trip to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Getting a visa wasn't difficult, he said, but when he arrived in Pyongyang he couldn't get adults to dance with him. And it was the birthday celebration for leader Kim Jong Il, where everybody was dancing. He finally got a few kids to join him.
In Shanghai, the 35-year-old former video games designer and his camera crew headed for the plaza of the ShanghaiScience and Technology Museum. Around 200 people got into the groove, but most were expats since Chinese adults seemed inhibited. Children and seniors got into the spirit, though.
A 100-year-old Chinese man started shaking it and laughing; he had his picture taken with Harding.
They flapped and flailed their arms, made a "Z" with their arms, jumped around and made big finish with arms in the air and fingers trembling. There was no background music.
It wasn't his first visit to Shanghai; he danced around landmarks on earlier trips.
It's all just a funny spontaneous dance with a funny guy from Connecticut who became an Internet sensation overnight when a friend posted his signature jig in a Vietnam visit. Two years later in 2005 it was picked up and went viral.
Now Dancing Matt has a website called "Where the hell is Matt?" and fans can sign up to dance with him when he comes to their city.
His dancing has been the face of a Visa credit card campaign and one for Stride chewing gum. He doesn't lack for sponsors.
Since 2008 he has been dancing with people instead of doing his solo jig. He receives thousands of e-mails and he decides which cities to visit based on e-mail numbers. That's why he visited Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong recently, though he didn't get e-mail invites from the DPRK.
Videos from his trips are posted on his website.
"I get e-mails every day from people telling me their reactions to the videos. People interpreted them in so many different ways, finding meanings that I never thought about myself," said Harding.
He adds easy moves to refresh his routine and chooses movements that will make people laugh.
Harding is currently working on a video where he dances in places that Americans consider dangerous or unfriendly, including Afghanistan, the DPRK, Iraq, Saudia Arabia, among others.
"The people are actually friendly, welcoming and I can get them to dance with me. Though not everybody will participate, I could always find people who are willing to join in the dance in each of the countries," he said.
Back in 2003 Harding didn't know the world would open its arms to him but he wanted to learn more about it. He was working in Australia as a software developer for a games company, and one morning he woke up and realized it was boring and meaningless; he quit and decided to travel the world.
First stop Southeast Asia.
"As an American, everything there seemed so interesting to me. The architecture, the dresses and the customs - everything is so different from what I had experienced before," said Harding.
The rest is history, and there's a more serious side to his antics.
"Just by going to these places and meeting these people, I can connect them to all the other people and all the other places that I have danced," said Harding. "That makes me feel like a central point of a huge and important network."
He himself is a brand and in China, we'd call him a stir-fried (chaozuo) celebrity.
The American has no message - or maybe just letting go and shaking it is the message - it's just fun, and people get into the spirit and dance with him around the world. He's frolicked in 96 countries so far: in jungles with indigenous tribesmen, in deserts with camel drivers and in the streets with ordinary people. Of course, he's done all the great landmarks.
"The moves are not important. The faces are," Harding told Shanghai Daily. "I always look at people's faces to make sure they smile and are having a good time."
He freely admits he doesn't know how to dance, hasn't been to college ("there's other ways to fill your head") and on his website he calls himself a "deadbeat from Connecticut."
Last month, Harding in was in Shanghai, fresh from a trip to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Getting a visa wasn't difficult, he said, but when he arrived in Pyongyang he couldn't get adults to dance with him. And it was the birthday celebration for leader Kim Jong Il, where everybody was dancing. He finally got a few kids to join him.
In Shanghai, the 35-year-old former video games designer and his camera crew headed for the plaza of the ShanghaiScience and Technology Museum. Around 200 people got into the groove, but most were expats since Chinese adults seemed inhibited. Children and seniors got into the spirit, though.
A 100-year-old Chinese man started shaking it and laughing; he had his picture taken with Harding.
They flapped and flailed their arms, made a "Z" with their arms, jumped around and made big finish with arms in the air and fingers trembling. There was no background music.
It wasn't his first visit to Shanghai; he danced around landmarks on earlier trips.
It's all just a funny spontaneous dance with a funny guy from Connecticut who became an Internet sensation overnight when a friend posted his signature jig in a Vietnam visit. Two years later in 2005 it was picked up and went viral.
Now Dancing Matt has a website called "Where the hell is Matt?" and fans can sign up to dance with him when he comes to their city.
His dancing has been the face of a Visa credit card campaign and one for Stride chewing gum. He doesn't lack for sponsors.
Since 2008 he has been dancing with people instead of doing his solo jig. He receives thousands of e-mails and he decides which cities to visit based on e-mail numbers. That's why he visited Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong recently, though he didn't get e-mail invites from the DPRK.
Videos from his trips are posted on his website.
"I get e-mails every day from people telling me their reactions to the videos. People interpreted them in so many different ways, finding meanings that I never thought about myself," said Harding.
He adds easy moves to refresh his routine and chooses movements that will make people laugh.
Harding is currently working on a video where he dances in places that Americans consider dangerous or unfriendly, including Afghanistan, the DPRK, Iraq, Saudia Arabia, among others.
"The people are actually friendly, welcoming and I can get them to dance with me. Though not everybody will participate, I could always find people who are willing to join in the dance in each of the countries," he said.
Back in 2003 Harding didn't know the world would open its arms to him but he wanted to learn more about it. He was working in Australia as a software developer for a games company, and one morning he woke up and realized it was boring and meaningless; he quit and decided to travel the world.
First stop Southeast Asia.
"As an American, everything there seemed so interesting to me. The architecture, the dresses and the customs - everything is so different from what I had experienced before," said Harding.
The rest is history, and there's a more serious side to his antics.
"Just by going to these places and meeting these people, I can connect them to all the other people and all the other places that I have danced," said Harding. "That makes me feel like a central point of a huge and important network."
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