Barring stormy skies or bad fortunes, visitors to Scoville Park on Oct. 21 will find a coven of witches swishing their brooms to a German reggae-pop song that translates to “Shake Your Bacon.”
The witches aren’t real witches — they’re a group of Oak Park residents who gather once a year dressed in a variety of black skirts, sparkly dresses, pointy hats and green face paint. This year marks the sixth time the Oak Park witch flash mob will perform the dance, which is a choreographed piece performed around the world to Peter Fox’s “Schüttel deinen Speck.”
When Oak Park resident Sarah Corbin stumbled in 2018 upon a video of the dance, which is performed near Halloween all over the world, she wanted to bring it home. Corbin created a Facebook group for interested locals, which now has nearly 300 members.
“Sometimes you need to do something just for fun, for no other reason other than you just have to let your hair down,” Corbin said. “It’s become a really nice group of women.”
Since its start seven years ago, the group has missed just two performances — one for bad weather and another during the pandemic, Corbin said. They learn the dance mainly from a YouTube tutorial, with help from the more experienced group members. Corbin estimated 25 to 40 people have participated in the dance each year.
Each witch creates their own costume, adding unique flairs to their getup. Last year’s performance included a variety of pointy hats — black, orange, purple, starry — hair-raising wigs and colorful striped leggings, along with the traditional all-black ensemble.
Group member Joanna Moran, who joined the group in 2021, said getting ready at a friend’s house before the dance is one of her favorite parts. Joining the group was a welcome opportunity for Moran, who always wanted to be a part of a flash mob.
“I didn’t expect it to be as much fun as it was. I was actually kind of nervous — ‘Oh, am I going to do the dance right?’ (But) the dance has pretty simple steps and if people aren’t doing it exactly right, it’s okay,” Moran said. “It’s fun watching people’s reactions as the dance starts forming and people are pulling out their phones videoing it or taking pictures”
For group member Nicole Lombardi, the dance is fun, as is making audience members laugh throughout their performance at the park and onward as they dance through town. But she also said being in community with other women feels empowering.
“Watching women all over the world putting out there the garb of witches added to the whole motivation of mine,” Lombardi said. “It’s kind of pushing through, past oppression and taking it back in an artistic way.”
The group is now using the annual performance to fundraise for women-led social justice causes, Corbin said. This year, the funds will be split between the Oak Park-Austin Area Moms Demand Action chapter and the Mercy Garden of Peace and Healing, a community space for survivors of gun violence in the Austin neighborhood.
Corbin said this adds a whole new meaning to the dancing.
“It’s nice to have an empowering space knowing that we’re making the dance expand into helping women in other areas,” she said. “We’re having fun, but it’s fun for good.”
The magic starts at 6 p.m.
