In 2012, a group of nearly 40 Irish dancers staged a flash mob at London’s Lakeside Shopping Centre. And the video of their performance has been viewed a whopping 14.6 MILLION times since it was posted!

The performance was organized by Aer Lingus Regional Airline, the London Southend Airport, Rathbone Perception Media, and the McGahan Lees Irish Dance Academy. It was all done to celebrate the launch of Aer Lingus’ new (at the time) regional flights from London Southend to Dublin and to announce that beginning on May 10th of that year, the airline would operate three of those flights daily with connections to New York, Boston, Chicago, and Orlando.

The video begins with a young woman moving through the busy shopping center and coming to a stop in an empty area already cordoned off. Shoppers clearly knew that something was going on since many of them had already stopped to get a view of the “stage.”

Then the woman begins to dance an Irish step dance – arms flat at her sides and feet moving rapidly.

The music begins about 10 seconds in – it’s “Cu Chullain’s Despair” by Beoga from the album Mischief.

The dancer begins her next round with the crowd now cheering her on as her feet stomp the floor in perfect rhythm.

But that’s not the extent of the performance. A man in a plaid shirt walks into the space to join her and the duo dance in perfect unison.

But this is a flash mob, after all, so we know more dancers are coming.

As more shoppers gather around, the camera pans out to show a third dancer. Then, slowly, more dancers join in one by one.

At first, they look like they’re merely wandering out onto the dance floor to give it a try, but since they all know the complex choreography it’s clear that no one is just winging it.

For some inexplicable reason, the shoppers simply gawk with straight faces, many of them holding up their phones. But very few crack a smile or look like they’re truly enjoying it. This is something that annoyed commenters to no end.

“The fact that literally EVERYONE in attendance wasn’t grinning from ear to ear throughout this entire performance astoundes me,” said one.

Nevertheless, the crowd only gets bigger, so it’s clear the audience is at least appreciative on the inside!

Now we’ve moved onto some group choreography instead of solo dancing and the performers weave in and out of complex patterns as strains from “Strings of Fire” by Ronan Hardiman are mixed in. The song appeared on the album Michael Flatley’s Feet of Flames so it’s obviously the perfect Irish dance music.

Now the male dancers stand in the middle while the woman step dance around them and everyone takes off their sweatshirts and jackets to reveal white t-shirts with the Aer Lingus logo and the phrase “Fly to Dublin” emblazoned on the front.

As the dance comes to an end the performers throw their hands in the air and receive an enthusiastic round of applause from the assembled shoppers – and now we see a few smiles come out.

And just like any good flash mob, everyone immediately goes back to doing what they were doing as if nothing ever happened.

Be sure to scroll down to see the impressive performance – it’ll likely make you smile even if the audience at the time looked rather dour!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: LondonSouthend via YouTube