At Villanova, NOVAdance is more than just a single-day event. It is a year-long fundraising effort that brings together students, families and B+ Heroes in support of the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. The experience builds toward a 12-hour dance marathon filled with moments of connection that stretch far beyond the dance floor. It is loud and fast-paced, but there is an underlying electricity that keeps everyone moving together.
Every hour, on the hour, that energy finds its moment. Conversations pause, water bottles are set down. NOVAdance’s iconic line dance begins, and suddenly, the entire room moves together in joyful, slightly chaotic unison.
For six minutes, participants step into something bigger than themselves. It is not about getting every move right or staying perfectly on beat. It is about joining in and sharing a rhythm that carries through the entire day. Behind those six minutes is months of work by the NOVAdance Entertainment Committee, carefully crafting a routine that is equal parts intentional, inclusive and undeniably fun.
Senior Andrew Zengeler is this year’s Entertainment Chair and has been part of this experience for four years, starting as a Sidekick his freshman year. What appears effortless in the moment is the result of hours of planning and testing what actually works on a crowded dance floor.
“It’s about six minutes at the start of every hour,” Zengeler said. “You don’t have to be good at dancing. It’s really just about keeping the vibes high, making the hours feel a little shorter and bringing everyone together.”
The process starts long before the big day. The team meets every Tuesday, often for several hours, to build the event.
“We started with a full document of close to 50 songs,” Zengeler said. “It was about figuring out what would flow best and what people would want to dance to.”
Sasha Shanker, a senior on the Entertainment team who has also been involved since her freshman year, said the song selection was all about finding the right balance.
“We wanted a variety of songs, fast and slow, and to make sure everything was age-appropriate and fit the camp theme,” Shanker said.
Once the music is finalized, choreography takes over. Over six weeks, the team met for even longer sessions, working through each step to make sure they had it down.
“Coming from a dance background, I had a lot of initial ideas, but the real challenge was adapting those ideas for everyone to follow,” Shanker said.
The balance between expertise and simplicity is intentional. Zengeler, who describes himself as “one of the worst dancers you’ll ever see,” serves as a built-in reality check, ensuring the dance stays accessible.
The routine is filled with familiar movements, partner interactions, and group sections that encourage people to meet new ones along the way.
Theresa Scarola, a junior on the team, emphasized that inclusivity is always a main consideration.
“It’s not a strict choreography, we just saw what would be most fun and most enjoyable for everyone,” Scarola said.
This mindset extends even further with the creation of an accessible version of the dance. This is the second year NOVAdance has implemented this initiative, allowing participants of all abilities to take part in the moment.
For Katie Koslow, a sophomore and first-year committee member, that effort is most evident when looking out at the crowd.
“Everyone in the room does the dance,” Koslow said. “It’s so special to see people start to pick up the steps, and then some B+ Heroes come up on the stage and do it with us.”
These moments, when the dance shifts from something taught to something shared, are what define NOVAdance as a whole.
“Sometimes just for fun, we do the dance twice because the energy is so high,” Shanker said.
There is even a built-in slower section where the room takes a breath, a moment to pause before it all picks back up again.
“The chant at the end is probably my favorite part, you can really feel everyone come together after a long day of constant activity,” Koslow said.
The line dance achieves the marathon’s actual goal, but there is so much to experience at NOVAdance. There are performances, a lip-sync hour, and, most importantly, the time spent with B+ Heroes. Somewhere along the way, everyone has missed a step, clapped at the wrong time or turned the wrong direction, only to laugh and keep going. Those six minutes each hour are not about getting it perfect. They are about coming together, again and again, for a purpose that carries far beyond the music.
