An impassioned group of dancers performs every hour to keep up morale throughout Dance Marathon’s Big Event.
In front of hundreds of yelling, dancing, and cheering people, the Dance Marathon morale captains performed a complicated and spectacular dance, mashing up popular songs into a fun medley aimed at pumping everyone up for the hours to come.
The morale captains performed a Cars-theme dance to fit with the overall theme of the event, featuring songs such as “Life is a Highway,” by Rascal Flatts and “Back in Black,” by AC/DC. Morale Captain Kelsey Hackenmiller said the group only learned the routine last week and had to work hard to get it right before the performance.
“We put in a couple of long practices to get it down,” she said.
Danny Whiskeyman, a sophomore morale captain assistant, said the dance keeps people excited during the 24 hours despite their exhaustion. He saw the dance for the first time the day before the Big Event and was waiting anxiously for everyone else to see the captains in action.
“It’s such a rush; they do it 24 times, and it gets you hyped every time,” he said.
Last year, the dance’s theme was Space Jam, a popular ’90s movie starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan.
Junior and third-year dancer Emily Hestbech said she was impressed with the level of skill and creativity in the dances and the way they keep her upbeat through the night.
“It’s very creative each year … I’ve seen a lot of them, and they always have a really good mashup of songs from different genres,” she said.
This is Hackenmiller’s first year as a morale captain and her last year in school, and though she said she’ll miss the event, she’s glad for the memories.
“It was awesome; it was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience,” she said.
