Elise Crauwels, a Sustainable Innovation student and secretary at Footloose, describes the soccer association’s invitation as a “huge opportunity”. She says her association’s number one experience is the annual performance at the Park Theatre. “There, we dance for an audience of four hundred people; the stadium can seat as many as 36 thousand. It may not sell out, but it will definitely be our largest performance yet. Plus, there’s a chance it will be broadcast on TV.” The performance, “think of it as a kind of American football show” will be the opening act before the women’s soccer match.

UEFA will provide the music and choreography. 44 dancers are needed and any extra dancers may sit on the reserve bench. Rehearsals will take place on six consecutive days starting May 29, from afternoons to evenings, and the show will be on Saturday, June 3. You don’t have to be a Footloose member to sign up. Anyone who is interested is welcome. In Crauwels’ words, “You don’t have to be an experienced dancer, but you do have to know how to move your body to the rhythm of the music.”

Commitment

Although Crauwels is not much of a soccer fan herself: “I had to look up what kind of match this is”, she knows that many Footloose members are really into the sport. She hopes enough students are willing to devote an entire week in spring to the project.  It takes quite a lot of commitment. The event takes place in week 6 of Q 4, which is three weeks before exams. It’s possible that students will have a lot of deadlines at that time. And I also think many students don’t know yet what their study schedule for May-June will look like. Not everyone looks more than four weeks ahead...”

But she has already guaranteed twenty participants to UEFA. “In addition to having a great experience, you will also receive a sweater and pants that you get to keep if you participate.” Tomorrow, Wednesday, December 14, at 9:30 p.m. in Orbit in Luna and Monday, December 19, at 7 p.m. in Atlas 3.201, Footloose will be hosting 30-minute information sessions to answer any questions from those interested as best they can. You can sign up for these sessions via UEFA Performance Information evenings – ESDV Footloose. “It’s great if you sign up, but it’s not required. We also wouldn’t really mind if people were to show up without signing up first”, says the Footloose secretary.