They're dancing in the street
And in the bookstore. And in the coffee shop. The guys of 123 Party dance where you least expect them.
CAMBRIDGE -- On a recent Sunday afternoon, three men wearing neon green uniforms strutted around Harvard Square with their signature boombox in tow: a vintage 2250 AM/FM Realistic Modulaire duct taped to an iPod , blasting a hit song from 1985: "You spin me right round, baby, right round . . . like a record baby. . ."
The mischievous trio -- who call themselves 123 Party -- casually boogied their way , boombox blaring, into Au Bon Pain, where they wove between tables of bewildered customers who nibbled pastries. The two who go by the names Fury and Turbo danced at the front of the store; the third member, Sonic, enthusiastically high-fived employees stationed behind the cash registers. The three dancers then sauntered outside to the middle of The Pit. Fury leaped on a concrete ledge and strummed the boombox as though he were playing air guitar. Turbo shook his booty. Sonic's dreadlocks bounced up and down as his 6-foot-2 frame did a dance move called "the running man."
Passersby stopped to watch these three grown men unleashing spastic dance moves. Some snapped photos with their cellphones. One woman laughed, turned to her friend and asked, "Who are these guys?" It didn't take long for 123 Party's act to catch on: A few spectators started dancing on the sidewalk.
This is what 123 Party strives for.
The self-described renegade dance troupe views the entire city as one big dance floor, and their mission is "to start the party," and get Bostonians "grooving like they've never grooved before." They're the latest in a wave of guerrilla performance artists to emerge from the Boston area, part of a pop culture phenomenon fueled by technology and DIY spirit, in which performers post their self-produced videos online and publicize their appearances online through message boards and MySpace bulletins.
123 Party is hard to miss: Alex Seligson (#1 a.k.a. Turbo), Joseph Wight (#2 a.k.a Sonic), and Mike Perlman (#3 a.k.a. Fury) wear retro-1980s uniforms consisting of snug - fitting shorts, striped tube socks, sweatbands, and neon green T-shirts emblazoned with their name and jersey number. Their style is reminiscent of Olivia Newton-John in her "Get Physical" days. Their official slogan: "Don't doubt the dance!"
The concept for 123 Party was hatched a year ago by Perlman and two buddies, Mike Forst and Rob Collum. Last March, during Perlman's senior year at Emerson College, they bought the brightest uniforms they could find, picked nicknames, and began practicing "the worst choreography we could think of," explained Perlman. 123 Party launched a MySpace page (myspace.com/123_party) and made their debut on Newbury Street in May. They filmed a couple of music videos, showing themselves dancing in the aisles of a crowded MBTA trolley; busting out the cabbage patch in front of 500 Boylston St. in the Back Bay; and frolicking in the Christian Science Center's water sprinklers (in slow motion, of course).
What started as a joke quickly "blew up online," said Perlman.
Their clips were viewed on YouTube more than 20,000 times. They started getting mentioned in blogs. Suddenly they had a following in cyberspace.
123 Party made its television debut in November with an appearing on "Pants-Off Dance-Off," a game show on the Fuse channel in which contestants dance in their underwear. On the show, Fury explained to viewers the reasoning behind their bright uniforms. In a deadpan voice, he said: "You can see neon dancing from a mile away . . . like a blazing fire of ultimate dance skill."
As 2006 came to a close, Perlman was hooked on the adrenaline rush of performing in public and looked forward to bigger gigs. Forst and Collum, on the other hand, decided to leave the group. But they didn't leave Perlman hanging. They held auditions at Embassy nightclub on Lansdowne Street and selected Seligson and Wight as their successors.
123 Party is much more than a publicity stunt, said Perlman. Making people smile, point and laugh, or even dance a little on their lunch break -- that's what he finds rewarding. "The dance creates happiness, and happiness, in turn, creates cooperation, and cooperation breeds harmony, and harmony is what makes this world function at its optimum caliber," he said.
Wight said he dances with 123 Party as much for the cardiovascular workout as for "challenging people's level of comfort," as he puts it. "The exercise is awesome," he said. "It is unbelievably good exercise."
Seligson said he's long been known to bust out crazy dance moves at any moment -- in his kitchen, at the grocery store, at parties -- so joining 123 Party was a natural next step. "Crazy dancing is my middle name," he said.
"The facial expressions I see on people's faces are priceless," Seligson said. "They're like, 'What the hell?' It's hilarious."
Not everyone finds their antics amusing. 123 Party has been booted out of bars like the Foggy Goggle and Dillon's, escorted out of stores like
But next month 123 Party must face what could be the biggest dance doubter of all -- the Massachusetts court system. The members of 123 Party found themselves behind bars last month, after they were arrested for trying to start the party inside Vox Populi on Boylston Street. The three men were charged with disorderly conduct and are due back in court next month for a pretrial hearing.
"All we were trying to do is spread the dance," Perlman said. "But we were outnumbered by dance doubters."
Perlman, the unofficial ringleader of the troupe, is not letting a brush with the law stop the party. He said, "123 Party will have the last dance."
Perlman has big plans for 123 Party. He said the group is supposed to be featured in the film "MySpaced The Movie," a documentary about offbeat characters who populate MySpace.com. He's also assembled two more dancers to perform with him in New York.
Seligson, Wight, and Perlman haven't let their run-in with the law put a damper on their dancing. They rehearse once a week, and they've continued to perform in public, at nightclubs, and outside when the temperature is above freezing. Next weekend they're booked to perform at a private party in Wellesley.
123 Party often publicize their appearances on their MySpace blog. Occasionally they'll show up somewhere unannounced. As the weather warms up, Bostonians can expect to see them out more often. "We're going to show up where you least expect it," Perlman said.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. 
