A flash mob broke out in the USC Annenberg Media newsroom and all across campus Tuesday, transforming each space into a stage.
Dancers flooded into the Annenberg building, climbing onto tables and gliding down the stairs. The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance students initially appeared as regular students, dressed in blazers to blend in But with each strut and pose, they energized the space.
What may have looked like a spontaneous bit was actually their midterm exam.
Tiffany Bong, assistant professor of practice at Kaufman, said the flash mob was a required assignment for students in her course on punking, also known as whacking, a dance form that originated in Los Angeles’ clubs in the 1970s.
“Punking is about claiming space,” Bong said.
The midterm challenges students to use unexpected spaces and consider how dance interacts with its environment.
Each spring semester, Kaufman hosts “Kaufman Punk Over,” an assignment that brings punking into campus spaces not typically associated with dance, from academic buildings to outdoor walkways and even local businesses. The goal is not only performance, Bong said, but unity.
“Dance has the power to create joy, love and unity,” she said. “It can make news. It can bring people together.”
Bella Mills, a junior dance major at Kaufman, says the assignment is known as the “punk-over.”
“We go into unconventional spaces, places where you wouldn’t normally dance, and bring the joy of punking and whacking to the public,” Mills said.
The group’s decision to perform at Annenberg was intentional, especially given the look the dance group coordinated.
“We were wearing suits, so Annenberg felt perfect,” Mills said. “Journalism people understand that weird things happen, we knew we could punk the space and it wouldn’t be too crazy.”
While midterms often bring stress and long hours, this exam replaced blue books with movement.
For Emily Liu, a Kaufman student from Shenzhen, China, the experience felt natural despite the unconventional setting. Liu said she is familiar with various street styles.
“I really just let go,” Liu said. “I’ve always immersed myself in street dance. That kind of freestyle, dancing-on-the-street vibe is what I always do, so I didn’t feel nervous.”
Performing in public added an element of unpredictability. In the span of about an hour, Liu said, the group moved across campus, stopping at multiple locations, including the USC Village Starbucks.
“Every space is so different. You have to read the energy of the room,” she said. “When you enter a new space, you’re slowly engaging and testing the vibe.”
Liu described how in the newsroom, dancers interacted with the architecture, stepping onto stairs, posing on tables and striding between desks, incorporating theatrical storytelling in punking’s history. Liu described the experience as cinematic.
“That was crazy,” she said. “It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The choice to wear blazers was also intentional. The cohort gravitated toward suits to contrast expectations associated with expression.
“We wanted to make it serious, and then dance,” Liu said.
The group also relied on collaboration to navigate each space. Alongside freestyle movement, they shared choreography that could be performed together.
“If this seems like it, everyone will do phrase one together instead of all freestyle,” Liu said. “It was really a bonding experience cohort-wise.”
Some previous classes had faced resistance while performing in public spaces, including being asked to leave, Liu said. This year’s was largely positive.
“We really wanted everyone to dance with us,” she said.
Val Vidal contributed to the reporting of this story.