Pedestrians browsing the Pearl Street Mall yesterday afternoon may have had brief sensations of being suspended in a time warp as a group of 150 impromptu performers spontaneously "froze" for five minutes.

"Everybody did fantastic," said Scott Rodwin, 39-year-old architect by day, and instigator of Sunday's 1st Frozen Boulder. "They took really interesting poses interacting with people. One guy was ordering a hot dog, there were people in the middle of a high five, other people were eating ice cream and the ice cream cones were dripping down their arms as they were in the freeze. It was really fun and everybody had a great time."

In an e-mail sent out inviting people to participate, Rodwin had originally expected 20-60 people to participate in the plan to "mingle and wander randomly around the fountain and plaza in the middle of Pearl Street Mall, blending with the general population. At precisely 12:45 p.m., all participants will freeze in their selected pose, looking as though they have been supernaturally suspended in the midst of ordinary life."

Accompanying the e-vite, a YouTube video of a similar event held at Grand Central Station in New York City caused an increase in circulation for the Boulder event, ultimately leading Rodwin to almost triple the amount of people originally projected to participate.

"A lot of people sent it on to their friends, and then their friends sent it on to even more friends -- so we had people coming who I didn't know at all," he said.

Rodwin began organizing the event after his father, an "innocent bystander in the Grand Central Station freeze," sent him video of it. Once the date, time, and location were selected, the final step before show time was to gather everyone together for brief training session on the north side of the Boulder Country Courthouse to explain the logistics of the event and offer a few quick tips to first-timers.

"I explained that the more interaction they can have with non-freezers before the freeze, the more interesting the event will be," said Rodwin. "So if you were in the middle of having a conversation with somebody who is not in on the prank, then it's really interesting when you stop talking in the middle of your sentence. Other than that I just encouraged people to be creative and come up with something they could hold for five minutes -- because its more difficult than you'd think."

The age of participants ranged from young children to adults in their late 50s. Activities ranged from conversational, such as ordering food or whispering a secret -- to physical, such as putting a lock on a bicycle. Rodwin was sitting on a bench eating a Granny Smith apple when the freeze started. He paused with his mouth wide open, ready to take a big bite.

"A group of six of us went to Ben and Jerry's and got ice cream cones with the point that they would be melting down our hands as we froze," said Lindsay Sworski, 30-year-old Freeze participant and massage therapist. "It was kind of funny to be frozen while I was looking something that was unfreezing."

Sworski told the Colorado Daily that she found out about the event through an e-mail list and "jumped on right away."

"I just love the idea of doing art in public," she said. "Something that makes people who would otherwise be ignoring the world stop for a second, wake up and say, 'Oh, that's out of the ordinary.' It feels like a gift to just do free, fun stuff like that. The freeze is just one of those things that seems like it would make people smile and stop for a second."

And how did people react? Sworski, who said she was so focused on maintaining her pose that she didn't move her eyes at all, had to gauge her response by listening to the reactions.

"I could tell people were talking and looking at us," she said. "There were parents who walked by with their little kids going, 'Look at those people, they're frozen!' And then I knew that the time had gone out because a bunch of people had started clapping."

Rodwin also measured the positive response of the group's unfrozen spectators. As a matter of fact, the group was so convincing, Rodwin even noticed people freezing against their will.

"Most people were just confused and wondering what was going on," he said. "Other people smiled and watched and others even joined in. There was one guy on a cell phone who was overheard saying, 'Well, I don't know what all these crazy people are doing, but it looks like I have to freeze too. I'll talk to you later,' and he hung up and joined us in the freeze. At the very end, everybody on the mall applauded, so apparently they really enjoyed the break from reality."

According to both Rodwin and Sworski, the performers involved in the freeze had so much fun that they immediately began talking about -even planning - additional performance activities.

"A lot of folks didn't know each other so it was a great way to bring the community together," said Rodwin. "There was a lot of enthusiasm for doing additional events, so I think there will be a bit more creative performance art here in Boulder happening in the near future." Contact Lance Vaillancourt about this story at (303) 443-6272, ext. 125, or at vaillancourt@coloradodaily.com.