Hugh Jackman “joined the dance” in Uruguay

Australian actor Hugh Jackman brings his song and dance act to Uruguay in the Lipton Ice Tea television commercial, “Join The Dance”. Sitting at the beach Jackman invites his chair to join his dance along Feeling’s cover of Men With Hats track The Security Dance. “You can dance if you want to”. The chair starts to move with the beat from the song and a couple of people in the next table catch Jackman’s infectious energy, get free up from their seats and start to dance with him. As Jackman dances his way to the boardwalk, across the streets and into the town square, increasing numbers of people are attracted towards the upbeat spirit and join the hoofer, developing a huge procession dancing in synchronized step. Stick figures of the guy and lady on bathrooms doorways sway towards the beat, buildings revolve, as well as the square get into the spirit.

The commercial was filmed on several locations in Piriapolis and Montevideo. The beach scenes are in Piriapolis and the square is Plaza Independencia, in Montevideo.

Watch the video below for the behind the scenes.

“The concept of the spot depended heavily on postproduction. Both Luciano and the agency wanted to include the maximum number of scenes. Jackman and the cast danced through over two dozen locations – each one more beautiful than the one before — and we didn’t want to lose any of the richness that these scenes brought to spot. So the first challenge was to find a pace that worked with the tempo of the song, and still allowed me to weave an overabundance of scenes into a visual tapestry that didn’t feel rushed and gave viewers the time needed to take in what they were seeing. While maintaining the pace of the spot, it was also important to keep the feel of the long dance sequence spontaneous as more and more people joined the procession. At the same time, the high-tech CGI elements needed to flow with the tempo of the music without taking the focus off the dancers as their growing numbers built the momentum, right down to the last frame of the spot.”

Jackman, on his side, said “I had such a fun time filming ‘Tokyo Dance Hotel’ last year, so I was thrilled when I saw the ‘Join the Dance’ script and realised I was going to be dancing again. Literally every day I went on set and we started with ten or fifteen people dancing and it just kept on growing until we were up to150 people dancing through these amazing locations. I pinch myself that this is a job because I had such a great time.”

And now the final product:

Music is “The Safety Dance”, performed by The Feeling.