Dance the Vote

October 19, 2018

Reminded everyday of the importance of civic engagement to social justice, a group of students, faculty, and alumni from the School of Communication joined with the Loyola Dance Program and school kids from Peirce Elementary in Edgewater, to create a unique PSA aimed at increasing voter turnout: “Dance the Vote!”

In 2014, the last midterm (non-presidential) election year, fewer than half of America’s 18-24 year olds were registered to vote, and fewer still (only 17%) actually cast a ballot. 

Spurred by Loyola’s participation in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a national effort to increase college students’ participation in elections, Professors Amy Wilkinson in Dance and Aaron Greer in Film wanted to create a fun video that would encourage young people to vote and remind them that civic participation should feel good.

The resulting 90-second video was filmed at Peirce Elementary in late-September, and features over 50 dancers of all ages, a dozen extras, and work from a 7-person film crew. Even the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners supported the non-partisan project, providing real, live voting booths as props for the video.

You can see the Dance the Vote video here.

Information about voting and registration can be found at vote411.org or voterparticipation.org