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It is about as far from the image of the hardened prison lag as you can get. As one, the 1,600 inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre, clad in orange jumpsuits, dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Together they writhe as zombies, before quick-stepping to the beat. But the routine is not forced, nor is it punishment. The performance is the result of a new exercise routine at the Filipino jail. Byron Garcia, a consultant who oversees security at the prison, introduced the new regime in March last year in an attempt to improve discipline and morale.

He has put film of the performance on YouTube, where it has been viewed 2 million times. He said: “When you are dancing, you would not even think of committing a crime. Most of them love to dance. For those who don’t want to, it’s a carrot and stick process, we take away some privileges. But we don’t use sticks any more.”

The training is now the prison’s core exercise routine. Mr Garcia said: “They started with Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.It was a success – they looked great. We had used child prisoners to do the main part of the choir, but we had a new law last year which took the minors out of prisons, so we can’t do that routine any more.” Instead, they moved on to the Village People, whose camp classics In the Navy and YMCA now form the heart of their routine.

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