COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. — In a decision widely celebrated by new and returning students, Southern Adventist University has greenlighted student dance parties on campus as sanctioned social activities. The new regulation comes with two caveats: dance parties of any size must be called “mime workshops” and students must wear body paint.
“Adventist churches have for decades allowed young people to perform mime to highly uptempo music with a drum track,” said Adventist Historian Pehrm Iscive. “The moves these church kids have pulled off are dance moves. As with so much in Adventism, it’s all in what you call it. Southern happens to have picked up on this and is running with it.”
Southern’s administration has pushed back forcefully against Iscive’s argument. “Moving joyfully and enthusiastically to music with your face freshly painted is clearly not the same as dancing,” said University Spokesperson Ehn Dehnayal. “That’s like saying the stretch and flex classes that have been taught for years at Adventist schools are really yoga.”
Since the announcement, administrators in charge of student life have received a torrent of event registration requests from student organizations and private groups wishing to host on-campus mime workshops everywhere, from outside the administrative offices of Wright Hall to poolside in Iles Physical Education Center.
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