Vote for a museum dance off winner

Museums are known for many things, but “dance video competitions” are not usually one of them. But tonight, Hamilton’s Steam and Technology Museum is a finalist in an international contest. And they need your vote.

Two museums, 8 countries and 4 continents later, the steam museum in Hamilton is in the top three!

Nancy Prochuk had one mission when she pitched this idea to fellow employees: “We see this video as a vehicle to get word out how awesome we are, how awesome musems are.”

Done entirely by museum staff, they started last fall and spent more than 40 hours shooting and editing.

“Every time it was mentioned that would be so much fun can we do that? We can’t totally do that!”

As gung ho as they all were, there was one concern:

Michael McAllister was the singer: So the only resistance was when it was time to sing. Staff didn’t want to do that so I jumped in.”

Museums have a reputation for being boring McAllister says: “We wanted to blow that perception right out of the water.”

They face two formidable foes in Indiana State Museum, and Spain’s Museo Nacional de Escultura

Voting began Sunday for the top three finalists and will only last 48 hours. The video has become more than they could have imagined

Nancy said: “This video has taken a life of its own. We are at a global competition and that was not the intent of this video.”

Michael said: “Museum people have a whole other skill set and when they come together with full intention they can do anything.”

The song is inspired by the 2013 video “What does the fox say”. It’s sung by the Norweigan comedy act ill – vis. They told me being the lone Canadian finalist makes them feel like leaders. Voting ends in the morning at 8am eastern time. We encourage as many people as possible to go to the website to cast their vote.