Ok Go Redux

I've been hooked on watching A Million Ways, the Ok Go song that became a viral video success. The dance seems rather amateurish, yet no one can deny its basic coolness. I had thought, after watching their followup Here It Goes, performed on eight treadmills, which tops the first in cleverness, was indeed a bit more skilled than at first imagined.

By watching about four or five versions of A Million Ways, you begin to see why it's difficult to get the right look. People can imitate the movements, to some extent.

So here's my guide to figuring out this infectious dance. The first key is Tim Nordwind. In most of the homages, none of the performers sing. They are dancing to the music, even the person playing the Nordwind lead role. That's a mistake. Part of the reason the dance works is that you pay attention to Nordwind. He typically faces the camera when he can. Some of the imitators get a little caught up with staring at their arms rather than to the audience.

In fact, watching the video yet again, Nordwind's expressive singing is really the key to the dance working. He's confidently assured, and the rest of the band is serving as disinterested backup. Another small, but key element is his white shoes. This makes him stand out more than the others (so does his baldness, and the thick framed glasses and beard).

The first place in the dance that starts to create problems is early on when he does his spin with his arms up in the air. Then, there's the part where Nordwind gets pushed back and forth. There's also the four sides arm shuffle (to the upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left). Even the chicken arm movement can be a little difficult to imitate.

How close do you stand to the person in front? Can you arch your back at the key moment? How fine should the steps be when they do the circle, I'm holding the fake gun bit?

The other lead, Damian Kulash, serves as the main disinterested guy. The rest of the guys are serving backup, and so their faces tend to never get too excited, unlike Nordwind.

Of the performances I've seen, the closest one to working is a bunch of high school guys. But the problem with their performance, as crisp as it is, is it lacks the Nordwind lead. The lead role looks like the backups, and that makes it far less effective than it should be. Most of the dance is about his confident dancing.

Even a geeky dance like this requires a certain level of style and coordination.

Keep this in mind, oh ye imitators of the Ok Go band Million Ways dance.