Name: Chloe Woodhouse
Year: 2014
Hometown: Westport, CT
Major: Anthropology and Science in Human Culture
What made you apply to be a DM emcee?
I really love Dance Marathon. Last year I was a group head for Willard, which basically means I was in charge of their fundraising efforts and getting people to sign up and to stay on. At the beginning of the year, I had one person in particular who came up to me and just said, “I can’t do this. There’s no way I can raise this money and I really wish I could do Dance Marathon but I just can’t do it.” She and I sat down and talked things through, and we made a plan and she raised all of her money and was able to go to Dance Marathon. Seeing her and the whole team really so excited and keeping people pumped up and having that final reveal and all of us really excited together really showed me that I wanted to be involved in something where I could motivate people and basically tell them, “Yes, you can do this,” and let them see how incredible Dance Marathon is.
So you have participated in DM in the past?
Yes, I was a group head last year. I’m on Dancer Relations this year and I’m going to continue doing that even though I’m also an Emcee.
What’s your favorite DM memory?
My freshman year the final reveal was pretty great. That moment when there were the two tiles to reveal the final seven digits and when the tile kind of slipped and everyone realized that we had broken a million, it was incredible. It was completely electric. People were gross and sweaty and hugging strangers and crying and jumping up and down. We were all delirious but we were all so excited.
What are you most excited for at DM this year?
I’m really excited to kind of feed off the audience. I think that a lot of people think, “Oh, the emcees, they keep everyone pumped up,” and we do, but I think that we also feed off the people in the audience. Seeing all the students get really excited and dance with each other and meet new people, I think that’s going to be something very cool to see looking out at the audience.
How do you plan to keep your energy level up for 30 hours while also pumping other people up?
Demetri and I have a really good rapport and we’re pretty good at keeping each other motivated. We’ve been in plenty of situations where we were pretty sleep-deprived and we kind of kept the other one going. On top of that, I just have some of those jams where as soon as they come on I’m just like, “Oh, this is my song, I have to go.” But of course there are like 20 of them, so you know I have a couple songs that, no matter what, will keep me going.
What advice would you give to a freshman doing DM for the first time?
In between blocks, put your feet up against the wall. It will help a lot. And get ready to meet people and don’t be discouraged if it’s halfway to the deadline and you don’t have half your money yet. Obviously, you have to keep trying and figure out ways to raise money, but you shouldn’t be so quick to give up.
What was the application process like?
It was really interesting, actually. We had to fill out a written application, and then Demetri and I had to make a video, which a couple people have seen. It’s on YouTube; it became a little bit of a mini sensation. And from there, you had an interview, and then if they liked you from the interview, they asked you back for a second round of interviews, which was pretty fun. It was just a lot about, why do you want to be a DM Emcee, how are you going to keep people pumped up, show us your best dance move and things like that.
What else are you involved in on campus?
I’m the president of a group on campus called Be The Match. It’s the Northwestern chapter; it’s a college pilot program basically. We’re affiliated with the Be The Match foundation. What we do is try to register students and faculty for the bone marrow registry. What that entails is we have people swab their cheek and if they turn out to be a genetic match for someone who has leukemia or some other kind of blood cancer, they’ll be contacted to see if they’d be willing to do a stem cell donation to help save someone’s life, so that’s really cool. I’m also a P-Wild counselor, which is incredible.
Where do you see yourself after graduation?
I don’t really know. I think I’m kind of like a lot of upperclassman in that I’m a little bit at a crossroads in terms of what to do. I think I would like to go into the public health field but I’m not positive yet, so I’m trying to keep my options open.