Dancing Chiang Mai cops a YouTube hit
The Nation: 19 Aug 2010
Dancing with Chiang Mai cops
A YouTube entry proves particularly arrestingThey might not yet be ready for Dancing With The Stars, but a group of twinkle-toed tourist police in Chiang Mai have hit the big time in cyberspace.
Thanks to a half-Thai, half-Australian teenager, whose mother is on the force, the police officers have worked up a dance routine that has drawn hundreds of thousands of viewers on YouTube.
Of course they are flattered, as is their coach, Krittaya Brown, who is all of 13.
"I'm glad that my 'uncles' did it so very well and they are proud to make the Chiang Mai Tourist Police popular," Krittaya said.
The video was posted on YouTube on Aug 5 and had received more than 400,000 hits as of yesterday. Thai newspapers published a story about it after receiving a lot of comments from internet surfers.
The video shows the officers from the 4th Subdivision of the Tourist Police shimmying and swinging their hips as they impersonate the Korean boy band Super Junior performing its 2009 Asian hit Sorry, Sorry.
The performance is part of an attempt by the Tourist Police Division to give its members a more friendly face in the eyes of visitors to Thailand. The division chiefs assigned six subdivisions to work on projects as part of a competition to lift the force's image.
The 4th Subdivision, which went on to win the competition, sought inspiration from one of its more memorable assignments.
Krittaya said her mother, Pol Sen Sgt Maj Warangkhanang Taengsuwan of the 4th Subdivision, had asked her to help the Chiang Mai Tourist Police prepare for the annual talent competition.
She and her dancing fellow officers received only a small amount of money to help.Describing her coaching of the dancing coppers as "not difficult", Krittaya, who has been learning dancing since she was seven, said the most difficult part for the officers to master was to cross their arms over their chests and stand on one leg while shaking to the rhythm.
After studying Super Junior music videos over the internet, it took her less than two days to get the officers up to a standard where they could perform for a video, she said.
Practising dance moves with her friends who share the same interests and passion is Krittaya's favourite hobby and her group has won several local dancing competitions.
Her dream is to become a tourist police officer like her mother who met her Australian husband while on duty.
"We never thought it would become this big," said Lt Col Tanakorn Doltanakan, one of nine officers in the five-minute video. "It's something we did just for fun. We took care of Super Junior when they toured Chiang Mai and saw how popular the group is."
After a short clip introducing the officers, the police switch their standard-issue brown uniforms for Miami Vice-style black suits, open-neck white shirts and dark sunglasses.
Slightly clumsy, not terribly fit but trying their utmost, the officers strike hip-hop poses as they
and gyrate and attempt to dance in synch to the song's electronic beat.
The dance was filmed by another officer's nephew. They rehearsed for two to three hours before going in front of the camera. Spliced into the dancing clips are scenes of the officers sitting at police stations and performing other official duties, doing sit-ups and practising the dance number in jeans and T-shirts in front of a parked patrol car.See the tourist police clip at:
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http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/191738/dancing-with-chiang-mai-cops
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