Good News, Dance Fans - London's Big Dance will be going ahead as planned this year.
New Mayor Boris had lost no time in appointing a supremo to review cultural events planned by the Greater London Authority, so at Londonist we are pleased to hear that this jewel in the capital's 2008 cultural calendar has not been pulled.
We are even more chuffed to get wind that the launch of the countdown to the event will involve 'Line dancers, Cheerleaders and a Hakka' - all at a Meedyah event on Friday in Havering's Upminster Park. The launch is public and will be going on on all day, involving gazillions of young people. If you want to take part, you can - get there for 12.30 where you can join in a huge line dance if that kind of thing takes your fancy.
A 'countdown' is obviously a fairly basic media ploy to generate interest in an event over a longer lead-in time than the traditional approach commonly known as 'panicking and rushing out a naff press release the day before'. But fair enough - six weeks out from the Big Dance itself (5-13 July, by the way), Londonist is happy to oblige as we love the whole she-bang.
For further details on the Big Dance (and a cool video of the last time this was held, in 2006) go to Visit London's Big Dance page. Rumours that organisers have begged us to include the London/New York Dance-Off remain unconfirmed. Mainly because they're chicken.
Image of Dancing Queens courtesy of jaimelondonboy's Flickrstream
