On Halloween night, most students donned costumes for parties or trick-or-treating, looking forward to all the candy they’d eat. However, dancers at local studio Joy of Motion were dressing up for a different reason: they were preparing for their flashmob as part of the White House Halloween celebration in front of the president and first lady.

Whitman students Callia Chuang, Ale Gonzalez, Adrienne Kafka, Leah Rebarber, Norell Sherman and Julia Wenick all danced in the performance, a short set to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

“There were around 120 of us from our studio, and we were all dressed like zombies,” Chuang said. “Everyone was really excited, because for a lot of people it was their first time being in the White House.”

In addition, instructors from the studio, led by jazz teacher Maverick Lemons, taught a small Thriller workshop in the East Room. The class was for the children of military service members and culminated in a performance for the president and first lady.

Joy of Motion’s performance was organized by Sarah Chapin, the studio’s production manager, following a request from Deesha Dyer, the White House Social Secretary from the office of the first lady—Mrs. Obama had suggested there be a flash mob during the event.

Chapin selected dancers from several of the studio’s teams, including the DanceFusion Jazz Project, the HYPE hip-hop program and the Youth Dance Ensemble.

“In just eight days, our students had to learn over three minutes of specific choreography, mostly at home using a few tutorial videos made by our faculty and found online,” Chapin said. “Each performing company rehearsed in their individual classes and between classes, and they had only one rehearsal with everyone involved just a few minutes before the performance.”

Joy of Motion, a nonprofit organization championing the performing arts, has been offering classes, workshops, festivals and performances in the Washington, DC area since 1976. Their flashmob at this year’s Halloween celebration was the latest in a series of performances at the White House; previously, dancers from the studio had the opportunity to perform at Mrs. Obama’s 2016 Black History Month event, Celebrating African American Women and Dance; PBS’s live performance, A Broadway Celebration, in 2010 for the First Family and their guests; and the 2010 Easter Egg Roll.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were in the audience for the dancers’ performance, something Gonzalez described as an incredible experience and one of the highlights of her final year dancing with the company.

“I think my favorite part was first seeing Michelle and Barack Obama come around the corner to meet all of us and show us some of their favorite Thriller moves,” she said. “That’s when everything stopped seeming like a dream and I realized we were really on the White House lawn preparing to perform for the president and the first lady.”