The masterminds behind the viral mannequin-head dance videos have stepped out from under the styrofoam and into an internet spotlight.
Best friends Tina Tobias, a 17-year-old from Flower Mound, and Addie Foster, a 16-year-old from Denton, began uploading videos to their shared YouTube channel TINADDIE this past summer.
The girls’ first mannequin-head video was uploaded Sept. 6 and featured them dancing to the song “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots. The video now has 805,683 views and has been succeeded by two other choreographed videos.
The video drew special attention from the ACU community as one of the dancers, Tobias, sports a grey hoodie with Abilene Christian printed on the chest. Tobias said she doesn’t have any ties to the university and is not quite sure how the hoodie came into her possession.
“I actually think the hoodie is my older sister’s friend’s hoodie,” said Tobias. “I guess it’s just been floating from friend to friend because we really aren’t sure where it originated from, it’s just been sitting around our house.”
Foster said she and Tobias were inspired to make their own mannequin-head video after seeing a video of a girl dancing to “This is Halloween” from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ a few months ago. Foster also said they never expected their “Heathens” video to be as big of a hit as it was.
“When we first posted the “Heathens” video we had no idea it was gonna blow up,” said Foster. “It was so crazy to us and people seemed to love it. We thought maybe we could try a second video and when it blew up just the same we knew this was going to be a trend for us.”
Tobias and Foster met in a dance class 5 years ago and their dance backgrounds can be seen by their fancy footwork in their videos. Funny choreography is always a crowd pleaser, but why include mannequin heads? Tobias said the styrofoam heads just add another layer of humor to their videos.
“Honestly, mannequin heads are so funny,” said Tobias. “We got them from a Hobby Lobby by my house and I was trying them on with my hoodie in the store and it was so funny. Something about those long necks make everything a hundred times funnier.”
Producing a video takes about 3 hours, Tobias said, most of which is spent choreographing dance moves.
“Sometimes we choreograph ahead of time, but for the most part we just do it section by section on the spot,” said Tobias. “It really doesn’t take to long to edit, probably about 15-20 minutes maximum.”
Foster said she and Tobias are brainstorming future video ideas and are striving to maintain a consistent uploading schedule on their YouTube channel.
“We are constantly thinking of new ideas for videos and usually put out polls on Twitter for our followers to vote on what they want to see next,” Foster said. “We try to post every Sunday on our Youtube channel TINADDIE so you can see our newest videos there.”
To check out Tobias and Foster’s videos, visit their YouTube channel at youtube.com/TINADDIE or follow them on Twitter @tinaddie_.
