Take a little hip hop, some cha cha and some other mix music designed to get Bronx feet moving and hips wiggling, put about a hundred doctors, nurses, administrators and other St. Barnabas Hospital workers on the roof of its new East Tremont parking garage and you have the makings of a Pink Glove Dance video.
Wearing pink gloves, they all used their waving hands and dancing feet to raise awareness for breast cancer.
It was all part of the filming Tuesday, August 28 of its “Pink Glove Dance”, a nation wide competition that alerts the public to the importance of early detection of breast cancer.
The dance was created by Medline in 2010, the nation’s largest private manufacturer of medical supplies, three years ago and placed on YouTube.
The video has since generated more than 13 million views and has inspired pink glove dance videos and events around the world.
As a result, the company created a sequel featuring more than 4,000 health care workers and breast cancer survivors from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to New York’s Times Square and many sites in between.
In 2011, Medline decided to host the first online nationwide competition to find the best pink glove dance.
The competition featured 139 videos from hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia, South Caroline won first place last year with 61,054 votes.
This year, St. Barnabas decided to join in the fun and go for the top prize.
The hospital is the only one in the Bronx competing.
Michelle Malave, chairperson for Medline pink glove dance competition for St. Barnabas and also a breast cancer survivor, said the whole experience is really about transforming the conversation of what it is to live with cancer.
“We worked with a choreographer, Nanette Richardson, and we created some dance moves,” Malave said. “We wanted to create dance moves that were easy but blended the cultural diversity of hospital, so we have a little chacha, a little hip hop, a little of everything.
“The whole experience has been a unifying event for the hospital and breast cancer survivors world wide,” she added. “It has been about unification, self expression and pride, and I think we’ve achieved that whether we win or not.”
Kirsten Sanchez can be reach via e-mail at ksanchez@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3394
