This is a brief history of Dance Party, a super rad party that has been happening at the end of each semester at UNI since 2008. It's a time to destress in a no-judgement, no-subsance zone where participants can dance under the blacklights and drink all the RedBull they want.

How did it start? Well, this story is not mine to be told. So, I'm going to turn my creative voice over to Austin Hansen, a current senior at UNI who has been part of the Dance Party Commission since 2012, and Ian Goldsmith, a UNI alum who was part of the Dance Party Commission from 2010 - 2012.

Here is the history of the Dance Party told by Ian Goldsmith.

Dance Party '08 was the first dance party. (Retroactively named '08). As the name implies, it was held in fall 2008. It was the brainchild of Tim Getting, who was rooming with Colin Dietrich, Sean Mathys, and Jason Dole. Held in Campus Courts, Apartment 9. About 50 people in attendance.

Dance Party 2 Remix: Spring 2009. Same four dudes. Same apartment. Double the attendance (about 100 people).

DP 3: Fall 2009. Tim, Colin, and then added some dudes. Moved the party out to the lobby area of Campus Courts. Approx. 150-200 people came. It was insane.

Dance Party Cuatro: Spring 2010. Same dudes. Same space (lobby). 250-300 people. Shoulder to shoulder. Biggest house party UNI had ever seen.

DP V: Fall 2010. Dance Party reaches new heights. Tim and Colin instill the intern program (Me [Ian], Logan, Mikey). DP has outgrown Campus Courts. New location: Luthern Student Center. This is really when the Dance Party Commission becomes a thing. We have weekly meetings. We start instilling many new promotionals, most of which we still do today: a logo, a promo video, a dance caravan, a fund-raiser. Everyone is talking about DP. Attendence skyrockets. 500-600 people. Floor of the LSC almost collapses. Had to yell "NO JUMPING" in to the mic several times for fear of everyone's safety. It was insane.

Dance Party Back to Basix: Spring 2011. This is the final party for the original dudes (Tim, Colin, etc.) Dance Party has exploded from an apartment party to a campus staple in just a little over two years. They want to do an homage to the Dance Party's growth, thus the name. Pull out all the stops again. Similar attendance (600 or so). Even though we rented enormous jacks for the floor, we still almost caved in the floor and we put a giant crack along the wall. LSC said they love us, but they can't have us back next year. It was insane.

Dance Party 7 Up Get Down: A new era of Dance Party. The "second generation," if you will. Instill new interns (Chris, Rosenberg, Tommy). Jason ups his graphics game to new heights. Promo videos take a dip because Ian is no Tim Getting. Attendance reaches unprecedented heights regardless. I think this was maybe the biggest one ever (700-800 people). This was the only one we had at St. Stephen's. The basement was LITERALLY dripping from sweat and condensation. It was insane.

Dance Party Invigor8: Spring 2012. Same dudes, new location yet again. First time in PLC [Prairie Lakes Church], the location we have had the most Dance Parties. Solid attendance as expected. Decide we want to have it at PLC until the end of time. It was insane.

Dance Party A9ocalypse: Fall 2012. This is the final DP for our generation (me [Ian], Logan, Mikey). PLC, solid attendance, played up the whole "world is ending in December" thing, which is what it felt like for me [Ian] because I was graduating in December. But that's neither here not there. The party was huge, as usual. People had fun, as usual. It was insane.

Dance Party X: A new generation emerges yet again. Chris Bowden almost single-handily throws a Dance Party. It was insane. Austin joins, has no idea what he is doing.

(Ian Graduates. Now told by Austin)

Dance Party Nightfa11: This is the start of the third wave of new commissioners. It was made up of Austin Hansen, Josh Schoon, Chris Bowden, Elija Seay, Kiley Cahill and Tom Madsen. This was the first Dance Party we had ever held at the Wesley Foundation in efforts to be closer to campus. The Dance Party went off without a hitch, but was one of the hotter venues we had seen creating a lot of traffic in and out. We had to mop the ceilings because of the condensation at the end of the night. It was insane.

Dance Party 12evolution: This was a great Dance Party because numbers increased even more. Being so close to the Hill, we had a lot of guests show up that wanted to have a good time, but weren't exactly substance free. So much so that we deduced we must go back to PLC to accommodate for the mass influx of dancers.

Dance Party 13reakdown: This was our return to PLC. Another solid Dance Party, so much so we once again decided that Prairie Lakes was our new home.

Dance Party 14vasion: This was our image (sic) to commissioner Tom Madson, who was graduating that year. We did a military-style intro video.

Dance Party 15 STORM: Commissioner Colby Campbell's last Dance Party. New interns hired, with a whole new wave to the Dance Party. This was the most recent Dance Party, and had the most numbers we have seen since the DP7 and DP8 days. Hoping to build off of that, we are heading into Dance Party 16.

Dance Party 16nition: COMING NEXT WEEK! Current commissioners Austin Hansen, Jeff Hinton, Josh Schoon, Caleb Lundeen, Matt Klien, Olivia Steffen, Katie Campbell, and Sarah Rudy."

As you can see by Goldsmith and Hansen's riveting recount of the Dance Party, it's pretty "insane."

If you need more convincing, you can visit the Dance Party's YouTube Channel, which is complete with all intro videos used in Dance Parties thus far.