Halifax's Pier 21 museum takes on international dance competition

The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax is a construction zone right now, but that's not stopping staff from having fun — or dancing their way into an international competition.

The staff are taking part in Museum Dance Off 2.0, a music video competition organized by the author of a blog called When You Work At a Museum.

"Because it's fun. Museums are fun. Dancing is fun," the website says in explaining the competition.

"It's also a chance to show your guests a different side of their favourite museum, and rally your community to vote for you."

The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 has been closed since October to work on its permanent exhibit extension, so staff — fittingly — chose the Safety Dance by Men Without Hats for their music video.

"We were able to get permission to don some safety equipment and dance through the museum offices as well as the construction space," said Claire Bennett, the curatorial projects co-ordinator at the museum. 

"I really enjoyed the shimmy that happens mid-way through the video. We have about five staff members who are really good at shimmying their shoulders."

'A David and Goliath type scenario'

The museum's new mascot, Fenton the teddy bear, also gets in on the action.

"He was quite good at pushing our CEO down the pedway," Bennett said. 

There are 28 museums involved in Museum Dance Off 2.0, including the Oshawa Museum (performing Everything is Awesome by Tegan and Sara featuring The Lonely Island) and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (performing U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer).

"I'm thinking of it as a bit of a David and Goliath type scenario because … Smithsonian Institutes are so world-renowned that it would be kind of neat to be able to beat them," said Bennett.   

Bennett said they are the only Canadian national museum involved and the only museum east of Montreal that submitted a video. 

The dance off is a friendly competition that shows museums in a different light, Bennett said.  

"There's always that old stereotype of museums just having the old objects, and the museum staff lurking in the shadows and telling you to keep quiet," Bennett said. "Museums nowadays aren't really like that. We're trying to engage with the public and get conversations started.

"We're hoping that this video showcases that our museum and our staff, even though we deal with difficult subject matter, we're approachable and fun."

Wednesday is the day to vote for The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Voting runs from 9 a.m. AT to 8:59 a.m. AT on Thursday. This is the first round of voting.