November Uprising

Since becoming involved in the Revolution, Meredith Vacek’s party has been for the party.

Better known around Lawrence as J8, Vacek and comrades Q3 and X9 were fed up with the lack of dance options in Jayhawk territory. Deciding about a year ago that ’80s nights were the opiates of the masses, the three set about freeing oppressed booty-shakers with Dance, Dance Revolution!

J8, Q3 and X9 are radical DJs who use “enforcers” to make sure that everyone in the must-dance area is dancing and to discourage wallflowerdom in all areas of the bar.

During the first revolution, last year, leaders were concerned because, early in the night, people clustered at the bar were looking around nervously — hence this year’s addition of the Special Dance Crew. “We have a small, close-knit crew of people we can call on to get out there and dance and make it look good, and people will be like, I want to look good — I’m gonna go out there! It just takes a few people to get out there and wiggle around, and the dance floor gets crowded.”

Dance propaganda takes the form of a multipronged assault, incorporating postcards depicting leaders’ faces, and bleak video footage projected on the walls. Plans are in the works to create a flag, but it’s not clear whether that’ll be done by Saturday’s revolution.

Organizing is more difficult than the party faithful realize, which is why, despite requests, Vacek and her buddies don’t stage coups more often. “You don’t know how hard it is to buy, borrow or steal three overhead projectors,” she says in her defense.

And to clear up some nagging confusion: Dance, Dance Revolution! has nothing to do with the instructional video game of the same name. Not yet, anyway. The DJs agree that making this game available would only help their cause. “It’d be really cool, and, you know, it’d make people shut up,” Vacek says. But with the next revolution sneaking up, you better figure out how to boogie on your own — or answer to the enforcers.