When was the last time you did the hokey pokey? Perhaps it was at your cousin’s wedding, or maybe at a school dance back in seventh grade. Whenever it was, it almost certainly wasn’t on the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world. This month, the nonprofit group Walkway Over the Hudson hopes to hokey pokey its way into Guinness World Records.
Organizers hope to break the record for “the longest single line of dancers” (currently held by 2,350 Estonians, who together danced their ethnic “toe dance” in 2008). To achieve this goal, 3,000 people must line the Walkway from Poughkeepsie to Highland and dance the hokey pokey — in unison — for five minutes. Participants — who donate $15 in order to take part — can form teams of 25 or more, the largest of which wins a prize. Dancers are encouraged to bring radios and boomboxes tuned to a local radio station, which will play the well-known song to keep everyone in sync. So why the hokey pokey? “Because it’s so much fun, and the words tell everybody what to do,” said Walkway Executive Director Elizabeth Waldstein-Hart.
The registration fees from this musical fund-raiser will go toward bridge upkeep and various projects, such as the construction of an aluminum and glass elevator on the bridge’s eastern side. “The walkway is a great venue,” says Waldstein-Hart, “and record-breaking is a fun way for people to participate and raise money for ongoing projects.”
June 9 from 7:30-10:30 a.m. $15, $360 for a group of 25. For more information, visit www.walkway.org.
