Thread: Chooky Dancers

very entertaining....

Vey good!

Here is a little more on them.
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ABORIGINAL teenagers on isolated Elcho Island, off the north-eastern coast of Northern Territory, got a few laughs late one night when they danced their version of Zorba The Greek with a sort of chook shuffle.

Twelve months later the "Chooky Dancers" have become a world-wide hit on the internet. Yesterday their hilarious performance had been viewed by 364,773 people on YouTube.

"We still can't believe it," said Frank Djirrimbilpilwuy, whose 21-year-old son, Lionel, is the lead dancer who came up with the idea to fuse Zorba The Greek with traditional dancing from his Yolngu indigenous clan. "I posted video of the dance on YouTube just for a bit of fun and it just took off," Mr Djirrimbilpilwuy, 56, said.

The group of 12, who perform in bare feet wearing loin cloths and ceremonial white body paint, have been invited to perform in Greece and will begin a tour of Queensland in March. Other invitations are flooding in.

The dance is such a sensation in Greece that cafe owners have screened it in town squares.

Six of the dancers aged from 12 to 22 had never been to Darwin until this week, where they performed for the first time outside Arnhem Land, the vast Aboriginal-owned region of the Northern Territory.

In the foyer of the Supreme Court, like every other time they have performed publicly, the onlookers went wild, clapping and cheering at the dance that can only be described as unique.

"Well, I'm sure nobody will be claiming we stole the idea from them," Mr Djirrimbilpilwuy, who now manages the group. "It's more up tempo than the original Zorba The Greek. The crowds love it everywhere they have danced so far," he said.

Mr Djirrimbilpilwuy said the dancers, who speak English as only their second or third language, hope they will be seen as role models in indigenous communities struggling to overcome alcohol and drug abuse.

There are few jobs on Elcho, where many of the 2000 Aboriginal residents still hunt traditional tucker such as mud crabs, turtles and dugongs.

"We are trying to get away from all the politics and the indigenous intervention and all that and paint a picture of how these kids can make a go of something," Mr Djirrimbilpilwuy said. "The main thing is that dancing keeps them away from boredom," he said.

Asked how teenagers who had never before seen a city bigger than Darwin would think about travelling to perform in Greece, Mr Djirrimbilpilwuy said: "It will be just magic."

The dancers returned to a heroes' welcome when they returned from Darwin to Elcho Island yesterday. Lionel Djirrimbilpilwuy told the cheering crowd of 50 people at the local airport that it was "fantastic the world wants to see us dance".

"Who would think a white-fella audience would react like that?" he said. "It's incredible."