As the IU Dance Marathon approaches and participants scramble to raise the last of their funding, the various committees are working on the last details. With the philanthropy event comes the music necessary to keep the participants dancing.
“Thirty-six hours is kind of a long time to do a lot of activity, but the music definitely keeps the juices flowing,” senior Sean O’Connor said.
O’Connor, who chairs the bands subcommittee, said he joined the entertainment committee after his first time dancing and hasn’t looked back.
“Initially it was through my fraternity, and I really enjoyed the 18 hours I danced,” O’Connor said. “Some of my friends had joined a committee the year before and told me I should look into joining one because I really enjoyed my experience.”
He said his subcommittee’s job is hiring the live performers.
“It’s not just bands, but other performers as well,” O’Connor said. “We have alternative bands, cover bands, we have a rapper, we have a DJ, so it’s an eclectic group of musicians that are going to be playing.”
The bands subcommittee contacts various musicians on both a local and national level. O’Connor said the members either see them play live, or if they are famous enough, they look the band up online.
O’Connor said members of the media subcommittee collaborate on a Spotify playlist, which plays in between events and usually lasts six to eight hours before looping. The criteria is primarily what is popular among students, but he said the subcommittee also makes sure the songs are not explicit.
“For the kids that are going to be there,” O’Connor said, echoing the philanthropy’s motto, “For The Kids,” or “FTK.”
O’Connor’s subcommittee is hindered by lack of a budget to pay for musicians to come to Bloomington, but he said also he enjoys the experience of giving local bands coverage.
“I see it as their donation to IUDM,” O’Connor said. “If they can come to play for free, it’s incredible.”
Billy Penny, a senior on O’Connor’s subcommittee, said music has played a major role in his life and being able to make a difference in society while being involved with his subcommittee’s work has made the experience more valuable.
“I think definitely a few years down the line we’re going to have some bigger acts that are going to come through,” Penny said.
A few of the musicians who are playing at IUDM performed at Penny’s house recently. He said this was a good way to test their aptitude before inviting them to play the dance marathon.
Penny said when he met O’Connor, who is now his fraternity brother, on his first day of college, they discussed music heavily. He said the marathon became most meaningful to him last year, when he served on a different committee.
“My junior year, I was on hospitality, and IUDM really struck a chord with me,” Penny said. “I just remember being there and seeing everyone dancing onstage for entertainment.”
He said the experience lead him to join the entertainment committee. Coming from California, Penny said he was not familiar with the dance marathon, but through his fraternity, he was able to participate, and now he serves on a subcommittee.
O’Connor said the music’s purpose is to entertain dancers and children alike, but he added that keeping dancers awake and focused is also a goal.
“A lot of it for the kids is just a bunch of fun,” he said. “It’s something to do that’s a little different for them, getting away from the hospital.”
