Making connections through dance: Internet sensation Matt Harding brings his video series to county

Harding’s series, “Where the Hell is Matt,” consists of four videos, created in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2012, each featuring him dancing alone, with a small group, or whole crowds in myriad locales.

“I retired [from making videos] for a few years and now I’ve come back out and [am] doing it again,” said the 39-year-old Seattle resident when he arrived in the South Bay Saturday to shoot portions of what will be a new, crowdsourced video, scheduled to be uploaded in November. Among his stops were the Stanford Dish in Palo Alto, Plaza de César Chávez in San Jose, the Courthouse Square in Redwood City and Ryder Park in San Mateo.

“I’m not going to as many countries (as in previous videos); I’m going to make a shorter video because all my other videos are five minutes long, and that’s just like ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ for internet videos,” Harding said. “It’s hard to hold people’s attention, and I feel like I could get the point across: to get people to an emotional place to think about other groups, people who might look different, and see a commonality.

“The videos so far, there’s been a trajectory over the past 10 years that I’ve been making them where each has been less and less about me and more about other people,” Harding said.

What originated as a seemingly self-aggrandizing video slideshow of Harding’s travels has matured into an altruistic message about connectivity, cooperation and friendship.

“There’s a longing to connect, everywhere I go, there’s a desire to feel connected to other people around the world, and be a part of a community,” Harding said. “I think that’s a fantastic impulse; an impulse that civilization is built upon.”

Harding’s previous videos were funded with corporate sponsorship, namely Stride gum, but this latest project was crowdsourced through Kickstarter.

“[Crowdsourcing] is a great way to really spread it even more, because they’re helping me actually make it, they’re helping me fund it,” Harding said. “And, I get to go and get communities of people together on the spot, spontaneously, and dance around and have fun. And it’s just a nice feeling.”

Among his “backers” was Kelly Cash, 55, of San Jose.

“I wouldn’t call [Harding’s videos] ‘earth-shatteringly inspirational,’ but at the same time it’s just a nice thing,” Cash said. “I mean, with so many things out there on the internet and in the world — angry news stories and political upheaval — it’s just nice. It’s a feel-good thing that has people from all over the world coming together in song and dance, regardless of how well one dances. It’s just fun and nice, and shows the camaraderie that we should all take to heart all the time.”

San Mateo residents Colleen Shannon, 37, and 8-year-old Meghan Moore, agreed.

“It’s just fun and always cool how [Harding’s events] bring people together,” said Shannon, who also backed Harding’s latest project. Saturday’s event in Redwood City was a sort of reunion for them as they both participated in Harding’s previous crowd-dancing video when he visited the Gazebo in Oakland’s Lake Merritt in 2011 and posted a year later.

Moore was 3 years old at the time but said she still remembers it.

“It’s always a lot of fun to dance silly,” Moore said.

Also at the Redwood City event to dance again with Harding was Rika Zilant, 39, of Redwood Shores. She’d also danced with Harding in Oakland in 2011, the same day she received good news from her doctor that a cancer scare proved benign.

“I really needed to relax and have fun that day,” Zilant said. She appreciates how Harding’s events invite people to “just be silly and free.”

Harding’s events tend to become memorable, not just for those who attend on purpose, as when he sends email alerts to his subscribers, but also for those who arrive unaware. Saturday’s afternoon event at the Courthouse Square coincided with a wedding reception inside the historic County Courthouse. Soon after a crowd had gathered to dance with Harding in front of the courthouse steps, a limousine arrived to deliver a pair of newlyweds who crossed the square, through the adoring throng, and up the steps.

Despite recent news about massacres, shootings and terrorist acts, Harding said the world needs to be reminded of its own beauty.

“I don’t go to places [just because they’ve] had tragedies. As it happened, last weekend I was in Orlando, (Florida), which we scheduled [to shoot a video] two months ago.” Harding said. Soon after scheduling the shoot, an armed gunman opened fire in that city’s gay nightclub Pulse, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others in what became the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman as well as the deadliest act against LGBT people in history.

“We had to decide whether to cancel,” Harding said, “but when I talked with people there, they said, ‘Absolutely! Come here, we need to dance!’”

When it comes to deciding whether to visit locations that have suffered atrocities, Harding said, “[That] isn’t something I factor [when deciding to visit someplace] but it is something of which I’m mindful.

“I kind of feel like with these videos it’s never a bad time for one to come out, and there’s never too much people dancing badly and having fun and being silly,” Harding said.

“Civilization is really at stake, lately. Seems like people are asking, ‘Are we here for ourselves or to take care of each other?’” Harding said. “I know what my answer is, and there’s an open debate about that.”

Go to wheretheheckismatt.com for more information.