The Music Man

Photo by Chris Danzig

By Marcy Miranda

"I'm the only member of the 300 hour club," he jokes.

For 10 years, Jay Sims has served as the Dance Marathon DJ. A graduate of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science with a degree in chemical engineering, Sims first served as the assistant DJ his sophomore year of college before taking the position as the only DJ his senior year.

With 300 CDs in his music library, Sims says he plays a wide variety of music to try and appeal to the musical tastes of all the dancers.

"I look at the people not dancing and try to figure out what will make them dance," Sims says. "I try to make everyone's experience as enjoyable as possible."

Sims helped create the tradition of playing "Here comes the Sun" by The Beatles as the sun rises over the dancers. He says that his favorite song to play is Madonna's "Like a Prayer" because it's a song that "everyone responds to."

Despite having participated in many Dance Marathons, Sims says his favorite memory is from the Dance Marathon of 1997. The primary beneficiary was the Gus Foundation, named for a boy who passed away from a brain tumor when he was 21 months old.

"His parents were dancing all night and at the end their reaction was so genuine at the amount of money we raised," Sims says.

The causes Dance Marathon raises money for are what have kept Sims coming back year after year.

"My body tells me that I'm tired and wonders why I do this each year, but the vision of people to have such a focus, to change the lives of people (is the driving factor)," he says.