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Dancing all around the world

Dancing Matt releases video of latest adventure all around the world

06/22/2012

The video features troubled countries such as Syria, private North Korea or Afghanistan and distant places such as Papua New Guinea of Namibia.

Matt Harding video. Photo: Wherethehellismatt.com

Matt Harding, an American traveler and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations, released on Wednesday the video of his latest adventure that has taken him once more dancing all over the world.

Garry Schyman, a US film, television and video game music composer, and Alicia Lemke, a US inspiring young talent, are responsible for the soundtrack of the video, Trip the light, already available to download on Itunes.

The video features troubled countries such as Syria, private North Korea or Afghanistan and distant places such as Papua New Guinea of Namibia. It includes extra moves and even dancing to the native country's dancing styles, such as Bali, Zimbabwe or Hawaii.

There are also some 'different places or scenes' such as dancing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on the Pacific Ocean, under the sea in the Great Barrier Reef, with a seal in the San Diego zoo or on the blue turf of Boise State University's Bronco Stadium, the first non-green playing surface in football history.

It gives viewers the chance to donate to several charity organizations, including Amnesty International, the Haitian Relief Organization, American Voices, Generation Rwanda, Axis Dance Company, Yaowawit School Kapong, Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children.

Matt Harding has been making this type of videos since 2005. After years working in the videogames industry in Australia, he went on a round-the-world trip where he would ask passers-by to film him dancing in front of famous monuments. Just one of those videos, published on the web, shot Matt to fame. His films are now the most watched and downloaded in the history of YouTube.

Dancing in the Basque Country

Dancing Matt's videos have inspired other people to record similar videos. Iñaki Goikoetxea spent 21 months producing his tribute to the original video, appropriately titled "Dancing in the Basque Country".

In the video, the young Gipuzkoan can be seen dancing the same moves in 100 different locations around the Basque Country, Navarre and Iparralde, all with the aim of spreading the image of 'Euskal Herria' on the internet. Says Iñaki "you don't need to go to the other side of the world to see incredible places".

Iñaki Goikoetxea's plan was to show off the Basque Country's most impressive locations - the mountains, cities, fiestas, and so on: "I wanted to show all the places I discovered when I was little. People might think we went there just to dance, but in fact we move around a lot so I used the opportunity to record the images," he points out.

Iñaki Goikoetxea is not the only Basque to be inspired by Matt Harding. A girl from Biscay had a similar idea when she launched the video "Bizkaia Dubi Dubi", in which she aimed to highlight her favourite places in Biscay.