At 11:30 p.m. Friday, the florescent lights in Norris University Center’s Louis Room were off. The chairs were stacked into towers in the corners. The disco ball lights were on, the speakers were shaking, and the cleared space was filled with bodies dancing to the beat of salsa and reggae mixes.

Friday’s multicultural “Go DJ, That’s My DJ!” dance party was the first collaboration between four cultural clubs.

Each of the groups – the Chinese Students Association, South Asian Student Alliance, For Members Only and Alianza – brought in a professional DJ to play music ranging from hip hop and R&B to Caribbean and Hindi remixes.

Students danced and watched dance performances including break dancing and Indian bhangra until 1 a.m.

“With the four of us from different cultures and backgrounds, this is a really good opportunity for us to share with each other and the university,” said Communication sophomore Michelle Tsao, CSA external president.

While Alianza, FMO and SASA played popular songs from their respective cultures, the CSA chose not to add Chinese pop music into the multicultural mix.

“The major goal for us,” Tsao said, “was to be as all-encompassing as possible and to play what we believed was music that everyone would enjoy.”

When doors opened at 9:30 p.m., about 30 people were there. By 11 p.m. the size had tripled. Some danced inside and others stood outside the entrance, taking photos and socializing cocktail-party style. By 11:30, the noise rivaled a frat party.

With some in battered Birkenstocks and others in pin-thin stilettos, the crowd in the Louis Room was diverse. Some came to see friends perform, while others, like Weinberg sophomore Hope McCoy, were there to perform.

The FMO performer, who warmed up as people chatted and streamed into the bathrooms near her, said the crowd in Norris was “definitely a different group of people than the ones you would see at other campus parties.”

Fellow FMO performer and Medill sophomore Dexter Hill agreed.

“I feel like everyone appreciates each other more,” Hill said. “I saw some Asian guys break dancing during a performance and there were lots of non-Asians cheering them on.”

SASA president Ravi Shah watched from the sidelines.

“I was involved in the coordination of this event and was a performer and a participant too,” the McCormick sophomore said. “I was there on all three levels, and I felt like we succeeded on each level.”

Reach Jennifer Chen at [email protected].