Students dance without music at Bog disco
Some IIT students have a Friday night routine. They don’t want to leave campus but feel like adventuring out of their rooms so they decide to visit the Bog. For those of you that are unaware, the Bog is a bar and recreation area, equipped with pool tables, ping pong tables, and a bowling alley, as well as a bar and kitchen, conveniently located in the basement of Hermann Hall. The Bog typically has events Thursday and Friday each week from 5:00P.M. to 1:00A.M. These events range from comedians, to musicians, to hypnotists and magicians, as well as dance parties. The Bog is something that is unique to IIT and is unheard of at other college campuses.
But I digress; back to my story. The students’ Bog routine may consist of corralling friends to head down to the Bog where they will walk past the luxuries the Bog has and head to the bar area to order food or a round of drinks, where they will sit and ignore whoever is on stage and quietly complain that IIT doesn’t have anything to do. Their normal routine is interrupted though. They are given a set of headphones before entering the bar area and when they enter, something is different. Students are dancing. But there is no music playing. And everyone appears to be dancing to a different beat. The Bog is having a Headphone Disco.
Headphone Disco is described as the silent dance party. There are two DJs, two different styles of music playing at the same time without any of the loud-speaker noise. Dancers are equipped with two-channel headphones that tune into one of two DJs who are spinning tracks side by side. Two friends could be dancing to two entirely different songs and still be having a great time. This trend has been popular overseas in Europe and is slowly sweeping our nation (The DJs that night were brought from overseas).
IIT students were skeptical. The night started out slow, with only ten dancers at most on the dance floor at the beginning of the night (The event started at 9:00P.M). The strange thing was, everyone was wearing headphones, listening to the music. Even when the dance floor started to get crowded around 10:00P.M., individuals were still sitting down listening to the music and dancing in their seats. Those brave enough to get on the dance floor had an experience like no other. The DJs alternated between modern music and the classics, ranging from the Party Rock Anthem to the YMCA. And if someone wasn’t feeling a song, all they had to do was switch and their friends didn’t have to know. Group dances, like the Wobble or the Cupid Shuffle, were popular among the crowd but for those that didn’t feel like synchronized dancing could still keep dancing to a different song. The silent dance party isn’t just for the dancers either. A spectator commented that they liked the idea of a silent dance party because the dancers could enjoy themselves while he was still able to have a conversation with their friends at the bar. Spectators were also able to laugh or join in when the dancers decided to sing a song out loud (To a spectator, it appears as if the dancers are just a really out of tune choir). The party was a great way to spend a Friday night in the Bog.
This event was even noticed by students from different schools. Individuals from another Chicago university were spotted dancing and having a great time with IIT students. One student was shocked that our campus had a bowling alley and bar right on campus and said that they should come here more often. If an outsider can see the enjoyable aspects of IIT, why do IIT students have such a difficult time having fun? The Bog recorded 144 visitors Friday night. Headphone Disco, the company who set-up the silent dance party, had 300 headphones to give away. There were at most 60 people on the dance floor. A lot of individuals were sitting with their headphones in, too afraid to take a chance of looking like a fool. But at least the 60 fools on the dance floor enjoyed their Friday night and won’t regret their time at IIT. Where will you be the next time IIT has a big event?
