Shake it Off- Final Version from Acma on Vimeo. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Try as they might, it's too late now to shake it off. A video of New Dorp High School faculty members dancing and lip-synching their way through Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" has gone viral on social media. Originally intended as an in-school video to be...
Shake it Off- Final Version from Acma on Vimeo.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Try as they might, it's too late now to shake it off.
A video of New Dorp High School faculty members dancing and lip-synching their way through Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" has gone viral on social media.
Originally intended as an in-school video to be shown during New Dorp's "School Spirit Week" leading up to the weekend's homecoming celebration, it wound up being posted on Vimeo, where it received more than 10,000 views in the first few hours, and shared on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other sites.
The video was shot and edited by students in New Dorp's Academy of Communication and Media Arts, one of the school's eight smaller-learning communities, at the behest of faculty member Janine Zagare, who is also New Dorp's coordinator of student activities (COSA).
"Every year the teachers try to do something different for students, to set an example of school spirit and get them motivated to support their school and come out for homecoming festivities," she explained. "We also want to show them that teachers have a sense of humor, too. It's all in fun."
A schoolwide pep rally is planned for Friday, in advance of Saturday's football game against rival Canarsie High School, followed by a Halloween-themed homecoming dinner-dance in the cafeteria, Ms. Zagare said.
This year -- with the support of principal Deidre D'Angelis -- who, we hear, is a Taylor Swift fan -- teachers decided to do a music video. They enlisted the help of colleague Anthony Passalacqua, who teaches a class in making and editing videos.
"The kids were all excited about it," said Passalacqua, who, when he's not teaching, runs "Shootin' School" youth basketball clinics around the borough. "They went all around to the classrooms and filmed all the teachers. Some of them were a bit camera shy, but when they saw their colleagues participating, they loosened up a bit," he said.
"It's going to be hard to top this," he added.
The video features teachers dancing in the classrooms, between rows of desks, some of them shaking feather boas as props, and out in the hallway, a teacher riding a skateboard through the double-doors.
Many of the faculty members in the video are also wearing special T-shirts sold around the school to support breast cancer research, and show their respect for Ms. D'Angelis, who is a breast cancer survivor.
"Ms. D is always telling us we're like a big family at New Dorp," said senior Devon Waschitz, who helped edit the video. "This just shows our teachers are the best!"