Crush Exam Stress and Just Dance was a national attempt to set the first world record for the most people dancing to Xbox’s Just Dance video game. It occurred on April 6 at 3 p.m. MST at eight different universities in Canada.
The University of Calgary, the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta and Carleton University were among the institutions that participated in the dance-off.
At the U of C, there were 58 participants. The Hip Hop and Funk Styles club at the U of C worked to bring the initiative to the university.
According to second-year U of C biology student Caitlin Tomaszewski, Just Dance was a simple and fun way to engage students.
“It was to raise awareness for mental health and de-stress the students before final exams,” said Tomaszewski.
Tomaszewski said the end of the semester can be extremely difficult for students.
“As exams near, students get really, really stressed out and really nervous. They focus a lot on studying, and they don’t focus on taking care of themselves or having fun,” said Tomaszewski.
She said that the dance-off was a chance to engage U of C students in a fun activity and a way to help improve mental health.
“Students should make sure they have a good balance of fun and studying and we really wanted to put on this event so that students could spend an hour de-stressing, having fun, letting go of all of their stress so they can return to their work a little bit more refreshed,” said Tomaszewski.
The event was sponsored by Xbox, Ubisoft Canada and Campus Perks, a national organization aimed to improve student life.
For the challenge, participants had to dance to the same song twice. Each university group was provided with $500 and gaming systems for the event. At least 40 people had to participate at each school to be included in the world record. There will be a grand prize of $2,500 for the dance team that had the most participants.
Third-year U of C English and dance student Jared Herring is a member of the Hip Hop and Funk Styles club. He said the event was a lot of fun and he was surprised at the amount of people who participated.
“To be honest, we were a little bit skeptical that we would pull through, but we were surprised at the support and the huge turnout,” said Herring. “It’s important to raise support for mental awareness and it’s a different and fun way to break a world record.”
Guinness World Records will announce whether the record was set within the next two weeks.
Gauge Sedgwick was a participant at Just Dance. He said the event was a lot of fun.
“Dancing is passion,” said Sedgwick. “It’s really cool to see events like this and I am happy I could join in.”