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Putting the Dance in DanceBlue: Who Does That?
Video By UK Public Relations and Marketing.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 19, 2013) — He may not be as well known as Bob Fosse, Alvin Ailey or Tabitha and Napoleon, but for more than 800 UK students participating in DanceBlue 2013, Jordan Plamp will be directing their dance moves for 24 hours.
"I started picking songs for the line dance last year," Plamp, the 2013 DanceBlue programming chair, said. "Anytime a song came on and I thought it would be good, I just wrote it down. I actually ended up with a list of about 750 songs and I slowly cut them down to what I liked."
For the past 10 months, Plamp and his programming committee have been counting to eight over and over to choreograph the nearly 11-minute dance routine that every participant in DanceBlue does at the top of each hour of the marathon.
"I play music in the bathroom when I get ready in the morning and I try out different moves," Plamp continued. "I would just play music and go with it and that slowly worked it’s way into, 'oh I like that move,' and then my committee would say that they like it, too. We're still working on things right now; we're going to be working on things even when we're at the marathon itself."
The eighth annual DanceBlue dance marathon kicks off at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, at Memorial Coliseum on UK's campus and concludes at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23. DanceBlue is UK’s 24 hour no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon that benefits the Golden Matrix Fund and the DanceBlue Kentucky Children's Hospital Pediatric Oncology Clinic. Since its inception in 2006, DanceBlue has raised more than $3.5 million for pediatric cancer research and children with cancer.
"It's neat to see something you worked so hard on fall into place and to see 800 people really like it and getting into it," he said. "It’s just an awesome feeling. I also know it's going back to the kids. It’s our way of honoring them. It’s something for them and it’s our gift back to them, it’s our dance".
DanceBlue is a program housed in the Center for Community Outreach. The CCO seeks to serve, connect and unite the University of Kentucky with the surrounding community in collaborative efforts to promote life-long community service. For more information about the CCO, visit getinvolved.uky.edu/cco. Connect with the CCO on Facebook here and on Twitter at twitter.com/ukcco.
Give to DanceBlue here and connect with DanceBlue on Facebook at www.facebook.com/danceblue and on Twitter at twitter.com/UKDanceBlue.
This feature is part of a new series produced by UKNow called "Who Does That?" The idea is to show you the unique students, faculty and staff who make UK tick.
We want to showcase how UK students, faculty and staff work each and every day to keep The Kentucky Promise alive and well.
Since the "Who Does That?" series is now a monthly feature on UKNow, we invite you to submit future ideas. If you've ever wondered, "Who does that?" about something at UK, please email us. Who knows? We might just use your question for our next feature!
MEDIA CONTACT: Katy Bennett, (859) 257-1909, katy.bennett@uky.edu
VIDEO CONTACTS: Amy Jones, (859) 257-1754, ext. 257, amy.jones2@uky.edu OR Kody Kiser, (859) 257-5282, kody.kiser@uky.edu
