Though its prominence has waned over the past decade, and although it might no longer be on the public’s collective consciousness, the flash mob still seems to find new breath and usefulness every now and again.

Natasha Rizzo and the Synergy Worx Dance Studio remember participating in flash mobs, saying, “We held flash mobs for Barking Mad a couple of years ago, and we raised quite a lot of money.”

More recently, she explained, “Mogale Pets came to me and asked if we could do another. I said okay, let’s do it for the animals; let’s do an initiative that actually contributes something and not just have a random flash mob.” From here, Bark for Life Animal Rescue – a pro-life organisation that rescues sick, injured, stray and unwanted animals – was approached and became their primary beneficiary.

The team asked as many people as they knew to participate, practise the dance which they hope would help create more awareness, and collect and donate as much dog food as possible.

The dancers mostly practised at home over a three-week period by following video instructions. The actual dance was held to the beat of Jason Derulo’s Savage Love in the parking area in front of Synergy Worx on Saturday, 10 October to a fairly sized crowd all filming the event on their smartphones.

“With Covid-19,” Natasha sighed, “many people lost their jobs. So, they don’t always have money to care for their animals, which end up in shelters. If people can’t adopt them, the dogs are put down. So we try to help collect food for Bark for Life to distribute so that community members at least can keep their pets.”

In the end, they received 13 large bags of dog food, three bags of cat food, many cans of food, collars and dog jerseys.