News Story

by Dale Grauman

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Students Shake a Leg in
Gym and Student Lounge

Adina Christiansen cuts a rug while
Kevin Thompson (DJ Messenjah) spins records.
--Zachary Anderson, photo

Multnomah students had a chance to dance at two on-campus events on Feb. 20, the Tuesday during missions conference. Dean of women Karen Fancher said that it was the first time dances had been held on campus in her nine-year tenure at the college.

The first dance was held in the gym as part of the Latin cultural experience. Students gathered in the gym at 6:30 p.m. to hear live Peruvian music, taste Cuban food, and learn salsa and merengue dancing.

To begin the dance-instruction portion of the evening, students formed two parallel lines, one of men and one of women, near mid court. The lines faced one another, and the instructor asked the students to pair up with somebody across from them. Couples linked up and began following the instructor through slow, elementary steps. A few students opted not to dance and watched from the sidelines.

Around 8:30 p.m., when the Latin dance lession ended, seminary student Kevin Thompson began spinning jazzy, electric house music on a set of turntables he had set up in the Joseph C. Aldrich Student Center. Thompson, who performs under the moniker DJ Messenjah, said that he plays at clubs almost every weekend. He said he wanted to play in the JCA to give students something fun to do during missions week.

Thompson set up his turntables and speakers in the northwest corner of the lounge and arranged the lounge furniture in a 10- to 15-foot semicircle around his equipment. Although Thompson did not promote the event as a dance, audience members soon began hopping around in the space between the furniture and the equipment. He played from about 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and he said that people danced on and off throughout the evening.

"We were just being silly, jumping up and down," Thompson said.

Brendan Robar, who attended the show and also danced, estimated that 80 people watched the performance and about 20 people danced. Robar spotted footloose college students, seminary students and missionaries. At one point, Robar borrowed a broom from the kitchen, and dancers began doing the limbo.

Although public dances are uncommon on campus, the MBC student handbook does make a provision for them under the heading "personal discretion." The handbook asks students to refrain from sensual or immodest dancing. Student Affairs must approve all dancing events connected to the school held either on or off campus.

Student Affairs pre-approved the dance at the Latin culture event but not the dancing at the DJ Messenjah concert. Thompson promoted his show as a concert, not a dance, and his audience began dancing on its own accord. Thompson did get the show but not the dancing approved by Stugo adviser Brianna Knuckey.

Neither Dean Fancher nor dean of men Joe Slavens was willing to condemn or endorse the DJ Messenjah performance because neither of them said they had seen the show or the dancing themselves.

Commenting on dancing in general, Dean Fancher said, "If it's in a public forum, then it needs to get approved [by the Student Affairs committee]."

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