1
1
1
But the one thing he did have an abundance of, was time. So he carefully cobbled his little video together and premiered it to his family in an effort to cheer them up on the night of the 2004 Presidential election.
He reports that they found it "mildly amusing."
Matt dancing at Shibuya crossing in Tokyo. Photo courtesy Matt Harding
Still, his sister wanted to show it to her friends, so he posted it on his Internet site. The following week it showed up on a supergeek forum, which triggered a thousand views, and in that wake it appeared on another site, sparking another 20,000 views.
In a month this "utterly unselfconscious video of a guy reveling in his inadequacies" was viral, a sure indication that what people want most of all is something that lifts their spirits and makes them smile.
Stride gum saw it and approached Matt. "Could we talk you into doing this again? For us? We'll pay."
Matt says, "it just dropped in my lap, the greatest thing in the world to do, the coolest job I've ever heard of." And then he was off on a trip around the world, accompanied for part of it by his new girlfriend, Melissa, who also contributed essential organizational skills.
Melissa with a lemur in Madagascar. Photo: Matt Harding.
He went to 39 countries on seven continents, from Antarctica to Zanzibar. Dubai to Tikal. He danced with elephants, kangaroos, dogs, and fish. He danced in zero gravity twice.
He got arrested for dancing in Athens. (Ye gods, what would Zorba say?)
In Kjeragbolten, Norway, Matt danced on a rock that is naturally wedged between the two faces of a windy chasm. The wet, slippery surface is some one thousand meters above the water in the fjords below.
You gotta admire a guy who will risk anything to get the right shot.
In between his fumbling footwork, he got to travel the way he loves best: "I'll take a few haphazard chunks of column over the big spectacle if it means I can see it on my own, without any guides explaining how it was put together, breaking the spell, ruining the ruins."
And he got hundreds of 15 to 20 second dancing clips, which he brilliantly edited into a 3 minute, 42 second, gem of a video.
