John Jacobson is the real-life embodiment of the hit television series Glee. Recognized internationally as a motivational speaker for teachers and students involved in choral music education, Jacobson has staged hundreds of music festival ensembles in his association with Walt Disney Productions and directed productions featuring thousands of young singers.
He is the founder and volunteer president of America Sings! Inc., a non-profit organization that encourages young performers to use their time and talents for community service. He stars in children’s musical and exercise videotapes, most recently the series “JJump! A Fitness Program for Children,” and is the Senior Contributing Writer for John Jacobson’s Music Express Magazine. Jacobson’s book A Place In The Choir: Finding Harmony in a World of Many Voices is quickly becoming the go-to resource for music and choir teachers all over the world.
With all of these accomplishments under his belt, it is more than a little ironic that Jacobson is rapidly becoming a household figure for something called “Double Dream Hands.” Originally a segment in a children’s dance instruction video, “Double Dream Hands” features Jacobson giving a step-by-step choreography tutorial to one of his original songs, “Planet Rock.” The segment was extracted and uploaded onto YouTube and promptly received nearly one million views within its first week of being debuted.
“It’s a strange world, really,” laughs Jacobson. “It’s weird to be getting attention all of a sudden for this little viral video on the Internet. I think it’s fantastic.”
The standard snarky comments have been posted, but for the most part, the feedback has been positive. At least 50 spin-off “video-responses” have been created by fans, including mash-ups that pair Jacobson’s video with another unrelated song or video to create a unique effect.
“It’s been really rewarding,” says Jacobson. “People post their own videos of themselves doing the dance and they are laughing so genuinely and having a great time. If that’s the contribution I make to the world, fantastic.”
Jacobson believes that people have identified so strongly with “Double Dream Hands” and shows like Glee because “it’s unnatural not to sing and dance. Children love to sing and dance all the time. And what happens to us as adults, as we get older, is that we think it’s not manly enough or that it’s not adult enough and so we stop dancing. And I’m just one of those people that never stopped dancing.”
Jacobson readily admits to looking silly in the video, but asserts that everyone who dances and does music is happier and healthier.
“And if I look ridiculous doing that, so be it.”
Part of Jacobson’s goal in life is to teach and unify the world through music, a taste of which can be experienced in the way the general public seems to be reveling in “Double Dream Hands” with childlike delight.
Jacobson affirms this:
I’m mostly seeing people posting messages to their mothers saying, ‘Mom, you’ve gotta learn this, cuz we’re all going to do it together.’ And there are college kids in their dorm rooms, and they all crowd around their web cams and they all do the dance! And they’re laughing hysterically, which is really wonderful, it’s just such a healthy thing. And there’s a mom sitting in her chair doing it and a guy tap-dancing. If the whole world would do the ‘Double Dream Hands,’ we’d have world peace.”
