Now that IS a class act: Teachers' flashdance for pupils is a YouTube hit

Last updated at 11:46 AM on 11th May 2011

It seemed like a normal day in the school canteen, until someone put the music on. For a moment, the rector looked furious.

Then suddenly he began to move, with fellow teachers joining in an impromptu flashdance as stunned pupils at a Scottish high school watched in disbelief.

Now the bizarre spectacle is drawing huge internet audiences on the YouTube website, watched upwards of 4,300 times since a video of the performance was posted on Saturday.

It features teachers at Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, Fife, breaking into a routine to a medley of popular cheesy songs. The performance, led by rector Philip Black, was put on to entertain senior pupils who are leaving.

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Teachers at the school danced to the YMCA among the songs in their repertoire

At first it looks as though someone has started the music as a prank and an angry Rector is seen wandering around the room... that is until his feet are taken by the beat

The clip, lasting three minutes and 19 seconds and entitled Bell Baxter High School Leavers ’11 Flashmob, starts with a stern-looking Mr Black patrolling the dining hall. Then the Village People hit YMCA starts playing, and he breaks in to its well-known dance routine.

An increasing number of staff then join in the rehearsed steps as the medley moves into Macarena, by Los del Rio, Michael Jackson’s Thriller and The Time Warp, from The Rocky Horror Show.

The apparently unexpected performance goes down a storm, with hundreds watching and a number of pupils joining in with the actions – to rapturous applause and whooping from the young audience in the crowded room. The entertainment was staged during a ‘flashmob’ in the school’s packed canteen as pupils broke off from the lessons for exams.

Subsequent comments on YouTube about the performance describe the flashdancing rector as a ‘legend’. One says: ‘Mr Black you’re awesome!’ A surprised pupil at the school wrote: ‘Mr Black CAN dance!!! Go Mr Black hahahaha xx.’ Another says: ‘I loved every second. Great show from pupils and staff.’

The 'flashdance' flashmob is now drawing in large crowds on Youtube after the performance was posted on Saturday

Other teachers soon join in on the dance to the delight of a cheering student body

Meanwhile an older spectator who watched the footage remarked: ‘Schooling has certainly changed since I was a lad.’ Mr Black is not the only member of staff coming in for praise – one fan declares on the website: ‘Mrs Livingstone lol, Legend.’

Mr Black, 54, said he and his fellow teachers who took part in the dance routine had become school celebrities after the clip was posted on the web.

He said: ‘It’s been a very different Monday, after this dance went on YouTube. I’ve never danced before but it was great fun. There were 600 people in the dining hall and now everybody’s going online to see the video. It’s great for the school.’

Mr Black, a former PE teacher, said the dance – at lunchtime on Thursday – was a gift to this year’s school leavers, before they went on study leave on Friday ahead of their forthcoming exams. He said: ‘We are one of Scotland’s biggest schools, with 1,800 pupils, and we like to foster positive relationships with them.

‘Every year we say farewell to a lot of our seniors and we wanted to give them something to remember. One of the senior girls, Chloe Simpson, came up with the idea for a flashmob involving the teachers and said she wanted me to front it.

‘We rehearsed after school last week and had around 100 staff and senior pupils strategically placed around the dining hall.

‘I was to look stern and angry that music was being played in the dining hall – then break in to the YMCA dance with my depute rector Hugh Martin. Then everyone else joined in.

‘My background is in PE but I think my timing is better than my rhythm. But I would do anything, within reason, if I thought it would improve or enhance the school and the relationships we have with our pupils.

‘There were 600 people in the dining hall and, besides those involved, nobody knew what was going to happen. It went fantastically well. The great thing is that it gives pupils, staff and parents a chance to see a side of the school they don’t normally see.

‘There are about 40 teachers involved.’