The glow sticks had been cracked, the DJ was set up and just a little after 8 p.m. the attendees had begun arriving to dance the night away — without political or social differences getting in the way.
Thursday’s “Listen! Dance! Unite!” event, billed as the first ever dance party on the U.S. Capitol grounds, almost didn’t happen, thanks to a fierce thunderstorm that rolled through the Washington area around 5 p.m. But with clear skies and wet grass, the event continued as planned, even though the crowd was smaller than the 200 to 300 people originally expected.
“I said, ‘I don’t care if three people show up. We need to at least do it,'” Rev. Pat Mahoney, one of the event’s organizers, told Red Alert Politics.
The Reverend and his team of organizers held the free event as a way to bring the city together and break down some of the hostility between people of different backgrounds and beliefs. Chris Stiles, also known as DJ Stylus Chris, spun hip-hop and dance beats — without explicit lyrics — as about 50 to 70 glow stick-wearing dancers moved to the music.
Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, had been praying for a way to bring people together in one of the most polarized cities in the world. He chose a dance party on the Capitol grounds because Congress is often at the center of the divisiveness and has an incredibly low approval rating.
“We believe strongly in the power — redemptive power — of dance and music, that when somebody’s dancing, they’re not liberal, they’re not conservative,” he said. “You don’t know what their policy is. They’re not pro-life, they’re not pro-choice. They’re not straight, they’re not gay. They’re just dancing.”
And Mahoney said they invited everyone — “you name the group, we invited them” — even standing outside Union Station and near the Capitol earlier this week, spreading the word.
Mary Kate McGetrick, Meredith Eib and Marika Countouris, freshmen at Catholic University of America, participated in the event because they felt it was a good way to meet other people who cared about peace.
“I think it’s just a really loving event,” Eib said. “Like, it doesn’t promote anything bad. It’s all about love.”
Mahoney and crew have hosted two other events like this earlier this year, in D.C.’s Current Lounge. “Dance on Injustice,” which promoted human rights, was held in January and “Love in the Club” was held in June.
In the future, the Reverend said they group hopes to hold dance events in other parts of the country, like Chicago. “Listen! Dance! Unite!” was also test for a bigger event they hope to hold later this year, on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial.
