A zany Zumba flash mob started to morph into something else when Tauranga bystanders joined in.
Perplexed as people around them in the crowd, dressed in street clothes, suddenly started to Zumba in perfect harmony, a few people mellowed out and got into the rhythm themselves.
It was the icingon the cake for Carla Beazley of Rhythmz Dance Company who put on a Zumba demonstration at Saturday's Cherry Blossom Festival at the Greerton Village shops.
Ms Beazley said there were a lot of smiles and puzzled looks in the crowd when things started to happen after the demonstration appeared to have finished.
Even the instructors looked perplexed as the music mysteriously cranked into life and a spectator dressed in street clothes started the Zumba dance. Nearly 100 other dancers, planted throughout the crowd and also dressed in civvies randomly joined in. Seven minutes later they left the area as if nothing had happened. She said a video of the flash mob made for entertaining viewing, with plenty of smiles and not a little confusion as people tried to get to grips with what was happening around them. Notably, some people in the crowd whom she did not recognise from Zumba classes, had started to join in. While they did not know the routine, they did their best.
The flash mob had practised for three weeks to pop up at the festival - the second time they had caught the public by surprise. The first occasion was in the Mid-City Mall just before Christmas last year. "It was so hilarious to see people's faces," Ms Beazley said.
Zumba is an exercise dance with a Latin dance element.
