SEATTLE – Set your eyes toward the future to October 27, 2007 and you will get a rare opportunity to look into the past – back to the days of Reaganomics, "Risky Business", Rubik's Cube and some new-fangled music maker called a compact disc player.

On that day, more than 100 people will run out of their cars, out of stores, jump off buses wherever they may be and gather in one spot somewhere in Seattle and suddenly break out into one of the defining pieces of 80's nostalgia.

They'll be doing Michael Jackson's Thriller dance, with a chance to rewrite history.

"Thriller in Seattle" is the western Washington appendage of the worldwide movement called "Thrill the World." It's rooted in Toronto, where dancers already set the Guinness world record for the most people doing the Thriller dance in one location.  On October 27 in 125 cities in 18 countries, groups of Thriller dancers will converge at one location in each city to set the world record for most people doing the dance at one time – period.

Thriller has stood the test of time, even outshining the King of Pop's controversial life over the past decade-and-a-half.  Its longevity is heavily based on the groundbreaking mini-movie/music video directed by John Landis, complete with Vincent Price voice-over, the disclaimer beforehand that it had nothing to do with Jackson's belief or disbelief in the occult, and the famous ending with those yellow eyes staring back at you.

By the showing at the most recent practice for "Thriller in Seattle," the song also spans generations, from people pushing retirement to amateur dancers who weren't even alive when the song came out to the organizer of the Seattle movement who wasn't even a U.S. citizen when dancers started moonwalking.

Lei Gong was about two-years-old when Thriller came out in 1983.  He was living in communist China until 1989 – the same year of the Tiananmen Square protests.  While not quite being directly behind the Iron Curtain, China was far enough from American pop culture to keep Gong unexposed to the song and video that left fans screaming and fainting anytime the gloved one got on stage.

Like many great ideas, Gong's brainstorm wasn't the result of hours of intense thinking, but a sudden inspiration.

"A bunch of friends of mine and I were dancing at a party to Thriller and we didn't know all the moves but we tried our best and we thought this would be a really good thing to perform in public," says Gong.

"Everyone's like 'what?'" said Roy Williams when he was asked to be one of the first dancers.

He got a few friends to agree to it, but when he went online to get others involved, he discovered he wasn't the only one with the idea.  "Thrill the World" was already up and running, so he decided to have his group join in the global plan.

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Zamir Koko, left, and Lola Kemp practice for "Thriller in Seattle."

Everyone dances to the same script.  Gong says as far as he knows, there will be one person playing Jackson's part – the woman who is organizing the whole thing.  Everyone else will be zombies.  Gong says some people may choose to dress up for the roles, but he envisions a scenario where everyone is walking around, looking like they're going about their daily business and then suddenly break out into dance.  Even so, four days before Halloween, who would give a second look to a pale-faced person with fake blood?

So at 3 p.m. on October 27, all the dancers, which by Gong's count have grown from the eight people he originally recruited to around 120, will converge on the same location and do the five minute dance.  The song itself is actually about half that length, but in order to have it counted for a Guinness record, it has to meet that minimum time.  The location is still being worked out and will be a closely guarded secret until the performance.  Only the Thriller group, city officials and the police will know where ahead of time.

Megan Toney heard about "Thriller in Seattle" on Craigslist.  The 26-year-old was still figuring out the whole walking thing when people were first dancing to the song.

"Every Halloween the song comes on and I wish I knew the dance routine, and I thought this would be a great chance to be part of something really cool that I'll remember the rest of my life," said Megan after her first practice.

"I read an article in the paper and I thought 'I was born for this.' What could be more fun?" said 59-year-old Lola Kemp, who is learning the dance with 58-year-old Zamir Koko,

Justin Wilcox and Ikrima Elhassan are two of the choreographers of "Thriller in Seattle."

Wilcox got the job seemingly by accident after getting an evite from a friend at work.

"I actually brought my girlfriend here about a month ago as a surprise."

Wilcox, who has about six years of swing dance experience, organized a practice session and posted it online.

But first, he had to learn the dance himself by watching the video, which is all over the internet.

 "If you've done any kind of dancing, you definitely can do this," says Wilcox.  "If you've ever done line dancing before, you can definitely do the dance.  And even if you haven't done it, there are videos online that you can go slow enough so everyone gets it."

Williams has picked it up pretty quickly.

"As far as Thriller ability, as of last Saturday I'd put myself as a zero. Now (after two practices), I'd say about a seven."

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Fellow Thriller dancer Kari Tarr concurs.

"We all start out as beginners and just keep getting better."

But if you want in on the big event, you'd better get to class.  Wilcox says anyone thinking about joining the group should go to at least two of the two-hour practices, as well as a rehearsal that will be held the week before.  All told, eight hours of preparation for a chance at being part of history.

Practices are held at Velocity Dance Center in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

18 years after Tiananmen Square, word is even getting back to Gong's native homeland, now more open to western culture than in 1983.

"My cousins in China know about this movement and they're pretty excited," says Gong.