Open Mic Day turns into a dance party

Aleah Roundy armed herself with a guitar and took to the stage Oct. 27 to begin Open Mic day at FSCJ's South Campus. Covering Gravity by Sara Bareilles to begin the festivities, Roundy was first to perform on the chaotic day. "It's my favorite song to play. I think It's really deep, something I really view and connect with, and if there's an opportunity to play at FSCJ, why not? I freaking love singing."

A few more students performed after Roundy, and then the event began to wind down. At any other school, this lull would have spelled the end, but not at FSCJ. The club music that was playing in between sets was amplified, and students slowly but surely assembled and began to dance. Open Mic was evolving into a dance party.

Two students in particular, Katherine Ruttell and Jane Marie Strom, spearheaded the transformation when they led the crowd (some would call it a disorganized mob) in doing the Dougie, the infamous dance popularized by the hip hop group Cali Swag District.

"We love to dance. It's what we do," proclaimed the pair, adding that they just came to study and that their decision to dance was made at the spur of the moment. "We're unpredictable people, and more unpredictable things are to come."

The school seemed to have forgotten that it was an Open Mic event by this point, and Open Mic emcee Rico Rivera knew he had to get things back on track. He knew that it would take drastic measures to restore order, so drastic measures he took; he started to freestyle. The performance was short-lived though, as his skills were slightly unpolished and FSCJ student David Silva took the stage to do some freestyling of his own. He was a little rusty at first, but he got into rhythm and officially ended the dance-off. Silva was drawing onlookers' attention to the stage again. It was undeniable: Silva had flow.

"How did I figure it out? I don't know, man, it just came naturally," Silva said about his freestyle technique. "(In elementary school) I was one of about 10 white kids at lunch, and we started with yo momma jokes and moved up to freestyling." Silva then moved to North Carolina for high school, where he began to rap for his friends at parties. He moved to Jacksonville, and pretty soon he was performing at clubs around town until he lost interest in the mid-2000s. According to Silva, that was the first time he's rapped in over five years, though if you were in the crowd that day, you wouldn't have been able to guess.

Silva's antics ended the day, but there will be more Open Mics to come. "We first introduced Open in the 2010 fall term as a one-time activity," said Rivera. "It was highly demanded during the spring term, so I expanded it some more. Now it's constantly inquired about by students." True to his word, another Open Mic was held on Nov. 10. and another will be held there on Dec. 1.