By Beau Bowman
@beauknows2
As the clock struck 9 in the IMU, dancers gathered in the Main Lounge to preform the morale dance, led by the team captains.
Before the traditional dance, dancers were presented with a special message from the cast of the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation,” including Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman.
The morale dance is preformed every hour, on the hour and consists of numerous popular songs that everyone can sing and dance along to. This year’s morale dance is eight minutes long and consists of songs by Flo Rida, Silento, and the Proclaimers.
After the morale dance, the screaming crowd of University of Iowa dancers were met by sorority house mothers, who put on quite a show.
They took to the stage dressed as cowgirls with 10-gallon cowboy hats, bandannas, and lots of denim. They danced to the song made famous by Shania Twain, “Man, I Feel Like a Woman.”
The crowd then thinned out in the Main Lounge as dancers made their way to the Hawkeye Room for lawn golf, bean bags, Jenga, and even a karaoke stage.
Numerous dancers talked about the events taking place in the Hawkeye Room instead of the Main Lounge dance floor.
“I’m really excited to go down to the Hawkeye Room,” Audra Tebbe said. “Hopefully, it’s not too packed down there.”
Dancers also took advantage of the air conditioning in the basement.
“It’s a lot cooler down here, temperature-wise,” Dallas Durkop said. “The karaoke is really fun, too. It’s awesome to see so many dancers and kids having a good time. And I can’t wait for the Man Pageant. That should be hilarious.”
It only stayed cool in the room until it began to fill up with more and more dancers.
UI freshman Evan Scaletta, who was playing Jenga, enjoyed about the atmosphere.
“It’s awesome down here. There are so many things to do. I kind of want to do karaoke, but the line is looking pretty long,”he said as the tower crashed to the table. “I don’t know; maybe I’ll just stick to Jenga.”
As the night progresses, dancers will have plenty of time to make their way back to the upper level for the 10 p.m. morale dance.