911±¬ÁϳԹÏ

Dancers with Shimmy Mob Team Parkersburg performing at Point Park on Saturday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

PARKERSBURG – Despite the dreary weather and rainy morning, Shimmy Mob Team Parkersburg gathered at Point Park to perform the annual Shimmy Mob choreography on Saturday.

To raise awareness of emotional abuse and domestic violence, dancers worldwide with the group Shimmy Mob perform a choreographed dance at the same time on the same day. The annual Shimmy Mob flash mob dance has been going on annually for 16 years.

“Every year there is different choreography that goes out to all the teams worldwide,” said Shimmy Mob Team Parkersburg leader Josie Rabatin. “This originated because a woman escaped her home situation and wanted to raise awareness.”

Rabatin said Parkersburg started their Shimmy Mob team about six years ago. They had around seven dancers who participated Saturday.

“This is my third year as leader, another lady brought the team to Parkersburg,” she said.

To raise awareness for domestic violence, Shimmy Mob Team Parkersburg performs a global choreographed dancer at Point Park on Saturday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

Rabatin and her group of dancers withstood the rain as they performed the choreography for the crowd. She said Point Park wouldn’t be their only stop as they would continue on to dance at locations around the Parkersburg area for the day.

“We have a lot of camaraderie between the women, we’ve had as many as 15 (dancers) before,” she said.

Rabatin said each year the worldwide event will include different colors and t-shirts for the dancers. This year’s colors just happened to be red, white, and blue.

In partnership with the Family Crisis Intervention Center, the event raises awareness of domestic violence and its victims.

“We invite them to our events and we support each other,” said FCIC Director Emily Larkins. “They bring awareness and provide donations.”

Larkins said she loves to watch them perform and tries her best to be in attendance.

Although the rain prevented a lot of spectators from attending at Point Park, Rabatin said they were going to dance at multiple locations and would gain more audience at the indoor locations.

For more information about Shimmy Mob, visit www.shimmymob.com

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com