Halfway through Block 4, energy begins to fade

Block 4 has sapped a lot of energy from both the Louis Room and Club DM. The middle-school themed block started out high-energy at 4 a.m. with the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, but as it neared 6 a.m., dancers had traded excited jumping for standing and swaying from side to side.

Standing still is a mistake, said DM veteran Nick Cheadle, a Weinberg junior dancing for the third year in a row.

"You have to keep a positive attitude, never stopping. Well, we're stopping now," said Cheadle, sitting on the floor with two other dancers outside the Louis Room. "(Dancers who just stand) are the people who suffer."

As he enters his 71st hour of DM dancing, has he learned anything since the first 30 hours freshman year?

"Now you know what's coming," he said. "I don't worry about it as much. It's just so much fun. The last block makes it all worth it."

Libby Nelson/The Daily Northwestern