Big Ol’ Dorks From Australia’s Museums Are Competing In A Worldwide Dance-Off

Here’s some information that will make your next trip to a museum or gallery infinitely more enjoyable: there is currently an enormous, elaborate dance competition being fought by the employees of dozens of museums all around the world. The stuffy middle-aged guy telling you off for leaning on the wall, the bespectacled lady glaring at you for laughing — they’ve both been filming themselves adorably cutting loose next to priceless artefacts and proudly putting it all on the internet.

The ‘When You Work At A Museum Dance-Off’ is now in its third year and is run by a blog of the same name. Featuring 36 entries from Australia, the UK, US and Canada, the competition comprises of choreographed routines performed by staff on site after-hours and its winner is decided by a public vote. Museums are pitted against one another in groups of four each day until a final victor is decided. This is more difficult than it sounds because each and every routine is objectively the best thing in the world.

Here are the staff of Canberra’s National Portrait Gallery bopping around to Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ with Hugh Jackman masks on their faces:

Here are your aunties at Victoria’s Yarra Ranges Regional Museum doing the macarena and the can-can to ‘Uptown Funk’:

Here’s footage from last year’s Christmas party where someone spiked the punch with acid at Sydney’s Museum Of Applied Arts And Sciences:

And here are the extremely dedicated and excellent staff of Melbourne Museum performing an elaborate version of Christopher Walken’s iconic dance from Fatboy Slim’s ‘Weapon of Choice’:

I love each and every one of these people (but especially the man in purple pants who refuses to smile, struts and then pulls out some Elvis hips at 1.36).

FYI that last bunch need your help with votes today. They’re facing off against the obviously inferior Epping Forest District Museum in the UK and are currently trailing by a couple of hundred votes. Please give them the love they deserve over here.