PERFORMING arts students from Weymouth College surprised shoppers by breaking into a dance routine.

The youngsters performed two five-minute dance routines at Debenhams in Weymouth yesterday as part of Project Random, which involves organising performances in public areas.

It is based on a Flashmob, a recent craze started in America, where people assemble suddenly in a public place and perform an unusual act for a brief time.

The Flashmob inspired the television adverts for T-Mobile.

There were 32 students involved, all of whom are first year students on the BTEC Subsidiary Diploma in Performing Arts, and the Flashmob is the culmination of their work for the year.

Previous groups have performed in Asda supermarket and the town centre.

Course tutor Tori Naerger said: “The students really enjoyed creating such an exciting, fun project and worked to a tight three week schedule to create their movement pieces, design their music sequence and perform live.

“The stimulus for this performance came from the T-Mobile adverts. The students have only had three weeks to collect the material and it shows their considerable skill to bring it all together.”

Peter Mills, 18, from Barrack Road, Weymouth was one of the students involved.

He said: “We were told at the start of the course there would be some sort of final project, but we were not told it would be this.

“We have all worked really hard and in all honesty, now it is over, I want to do it all over again.”

Bishan Mazumber, 25, from Wyke Regis, said: “It was excellent. I knew something like this was going to happen and I wanted to see it. I know some of the students involved and I was excited for them.”

The staff in Debenhams were made aware of when and where the Flashmob would take place and the students took a short break between performances so staff and customers could return to normal for a few minutes.

Debenhams worker Diana Sergent, 43, from Portland, said: “I thought it was fantastic. It’s lovely to see locals performing like that.”