Cleveleys dancer and pal who started Jiggle Jiggle TikTok dance craze now working with Stranger Things TV show
and live on Freeview channel 276
The dance created by Jess Qualter and housemate Brooke Blewitt has swept America and they have just been interviewed by the New York Times about the craze they started.
It all began last month when Jess and Brooke, who are both aged 21, were listening to an unlikely rap song featuring documentary film maker Louis Theroux when they decided to film themselves dancing along to it.
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Hide AdThey worked out out a jaunty routine and filmed themselves dancing to it, wearing hoodies and dark glasses, and uploaded the video onto social media platform TikTok.
Their routine lasts barely 25 seconds yet what happened next illustrates the huge scope of social media.
Within just a few days the pair, who live in London and are professional performers in musical theatre, had accrued 38 million global views.
Youngsters from schools across the UK started copying it and celebrities such Amanda Holden and Holly Willoughby released videos on TikTok doing their version of the moves.
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Hide AdThey weren’t the only ones – hundreds of other people, some wearing hoodies and dark glasses like Jess and Brooke, have been made videos of themselves performing their own versions of it.
Since then the number of Tik Tok views has doubled to 60 million – with 90 per cent of their half a million-plus followers being from America.
On the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, one of the most popular American chat shows, pop star Shakira performed the routine – with the video of Jess and Brooke shown playing behind her.
Now the pair have been employed by Netflix to create a promotional dance video to the theme tune of Stranger Things, the sci fi thriller which is so popular it helped put Kate Bush back at the top of music charts across the globe.
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Hide AdJess, a former pupil of Cardinal Allen Catholic High School in Fleetwood, said: “It’s crazy how everything has taken off, we never expected anything like this.
"The strange thing is how most of our followers come from America – they’re surprised when they find out we’re from England.
“When the New York Times interviewed Louis Theroux and asked him about the dance, he told them about us and then they’re contacting us. It’s very weird!”
The song itself, which has a also gone viral on TikTok, was born when two DJs from Manchester, Duke and James, hit upon the idea of providing a back-up track to a rap that Theroux created while making his series Weird Weekends back in 2000.
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Hide AdJess and Brooke – who comes from Billericay in Essex – have set up a new joint account on Tik Tok to deal with the huge level of interest.
The pair, who both trained in ballet and other dance styles and are graduates of the Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom Surrey, are professional dancers so they are just happy to see where the amazing phenomenon will take them next.