Who says Ottawa is full of stuffy, boring, black-suited types? Bureaucrats like letting their hair down and showing their fun side, says a public servant who danced across the nation’s capital in a series of dance blitzes.
Jon Juane, a marketing officer with Service Canada, showed off his happy feet moves on Parliament Hill and the Rideau Canal in a YouTube video he posted Thursday – all in a bid to get on comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres' television show.
Ms. DeGeneres had called on her fans to create “hidden” dance videos after seeing one last month, promising to fly in the dancer in her favourite video to show off their moves on her show in Los Angeles. Mr. Juane, 27, took the message to heart and got his family to help him out last weekend.
“I’m a big fan, watch her all the time on YouTube, and I just couldn’t resist it,” Mr. Juane said. “I just pretended there was music playing and then the magic happened.”
The music was later edited in. Decked up in bright neon green and pink sweater, Mr. Juane gyrates in the video behind people who, for the most part, remain unaware he’s breaking out the moves behind them. He has never taken dance lessons, but you wouldn’t know that from his enthusiastic dance moves, including a careful balancing act on skates while on the canal.
He pirouetted around the gaggle of unsuspecting girls at the Centennial Flame, and then later crept up behind several people on a highlights tour of the Parliament Hill.
“I made sure I could videotape … I didn’t want to get arrested, you know?” Mr. Juane said. “Some people gave me weird looks and there was one lady who definitely didn’t like it, but for the most part, people just laughed if they saw me.”
Perhaps the most hilarious part of the video is when Mr. Juane pretends to butt-slap and gyrate a security guard in the Hill’s main foyer, and then nonchalantly walks off, giving the unsuspecting fellow a respectable nod.
“The reaction has been tremendous,” Mr. Juane said, adding that one of his more senior bosses told him they were really proud of him.
The video has already garnered over 5,000 views since it was uploaded Thursday.
