Minneapolis girl takes on global role in YouTube video

YouTube hit
This "Dancing" featurette on YouTube has generated millions of hits; the young woman heard singing in the piece is a student at Southwest High School in Minneapolis.
MPR photo/Tom Weber

A Minneapolis girl plays a big role in one of this year's most popular and talked-about Internet videos.

Posted about a week ago, the film, simply called "Dancing," has nearly three million hits on YouTube alone, and it is featured at many other Internet sites. The film features a 31-year-old computer programmer turned filmmaker doing a goofy dance in just about every imaginable corner of the globe.

Matthew Harding has made similar videos in the past, but the stars of this year's film are actually the hundreds of people he's met in his journeys around the world. The video's haunting soundtrack features the singing of 17-year-old Palbasha Siddique, who lives in Northeast Minneapolis.

Siddique is a native of Bangladesh and sings the song in her native language. It is a translation of the poem "Stream of Life" by Rabindranath Tagore. You can visit the Dancing with the Universe Web site to learn more about Palbasha Siddique and get a translation of the words of her song.

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