Those who aren’t talented enough to choreograph complicated dance routines or brave enough to salsa with a professor had their own opportunity to “pop, lock and drop it” Tuesday, Feb. 9, at the third annual West Hall Dance Party.
With its rowdy black light raves, reminiscent party hits from the ‘90s and hip-hop favorites, West Hall transformed into a tri-level, Club @ N-Dub-to-the-extreme.
The campus-wide event was created two years ago as a way to get students more involved outside of their own residence halls. Now the West Hall Dance Party has become a trademark of the dorm.
“We realized that West didn’t host anything for the rest of campus and we decided to create something that people could come and participate in,” West RD Seth Currier said. “And we like to dance.”
With its multi-level structure, students were able to hang out with people from all sides of the campus green and enter three different worlds of dance all under one roof.
Complete with glowsticks, strobe lights, trippy, cosmic screen savers, mock beer cans and hard liquor bottles and laundry detergent graffiti, the dance party more than lived up to its “clubbin” reputation.
Sophomore Nikki Doorenbos, a satisfied dance party participant, reinforced its overall positive approval with the simple but profound statement, “It was freaking awesome.”
The crowd favorite was the blast-from-the-past ‘90s section, blasting Backstreet Boys, old-school Britney Spears, the one-hit-wonder Chumba Wumba and Eiffel 65’s “Blue,” to which everyone made up their own words—Da boo dee da boo die, I’m in need of a guy, etc. This style brought the dancers back to the golden years of their youth.
Old-school music wasn’t the only twentieth-century flashback. Tributes to popular ‘90s TV shows like Boy Meets World and Angry Beavers and even a commemoration of the has-been planet Pluto were a part of the overall homage to the junior high years that most love to forget.
Overall, the West Hall Dance Party served as a healthy midweek release from the stress of college life. The event catered to a variety of musical interests and was sensitive to NW students by making sure the speakers stopped blaring and the moves stopped busting in time for D-groups.
According to the critically acclaimed and credible Wikipedia source, the definition of a dance party is, “a gathering in a private house, bar, nightclub or community center where the guests informally dance to dance music such as pop, disco, electronica, house, techno and trance.”
But according to the critically acclaimed and credible Seth Currier, the definition of the West Hall Dance Party is, “Groovin’ and jivin’ so extreme, it borders on radioactive.”
