By Bradley Rosenberg

On January 30, Northeastern freshman Kevin Donner sat upon a pool table in the Curry Center game room with a mound of quarters by his side and a spattering of concentration on his brow.

“I am definitely nervous,” said Donner.

Despite his apprehension, Donner knew that he would bravely carry on. He was a dance warrior and, as such, he could not turn away from Northeastern’s very first Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) Tournament. There was no way he could shake that “groove” thing.

The DDR tournament drew 17 other combatants, all just as enthusiastic about the “follow-the-arrows” dance simulation videogame. They came from Northeastern, they came from Boston University, they even came from high schools, all to determine who reigns supreme in the battle of the beats. The victor didn’t win money, the winner won glory.

This was a dance for the ages.

“I’m hoping to become top four,” said Malden Catholic School sophomore Billy Brown. “Last tournament I came in third, but [some of the other competitors] are really good.”

Brown, who found out about the NU tournament from the Web site DDRFreak.com, has competed in three other tournaments in his lifetime, and says that these types of competitions are what got him into DDR in the first place.

“Tournaments are a lot of fun,” he said. “I get to meet people I normally wouldn’t meet in school.”

Brown also enjoys being a part of the vibrant DDR community.

“All my friends are from DDR,” he said. “I see this group all the time at different arcades.”

Dan Kirtz, the NU sophomore who set up the tournament, is a big believer in keeping that community together.

“I don’t play as much DDR as I used to, but I wanted to put up a tournament so that others could have fun,” Kirtz said. “I heard Northeastern was going to have one, so I posted it on the DDR Web site and I sent a note to Joanie [Cohn, the services coordinator for the Curry student center] to let them know I’d be able to help. I set up the rules, told people about it, and I helped the players keep in touch with Northeastern.”

A participant in “about seven or eight tournaments” and the winner of two, Kirtz greatly advocates the use of DDR.

“It definitely helps people with their coordination and listening skills,” Kirtz said. “When you start out, you have no idea what’s going on, but, three months into it, you get good at it. You may look like an idiot, but if you don’t care what other people think about you, you’re having fun already.”

Cohn agrees.

“If they’re going to be into something, this is a good thing to be into,” says Cohn. “It’s brought a lot of money in.”

Cohn, who decided to hold the tournament because she “thought it would be a good addition to the pool and table tennis tournaments,” says that the DDR was brought into the game room in January due to the great demand for it. Cohn thinks that part of the reason for that great demand was because of The Northeastern News article published in October 2002. The article, which focused around freshman Donner, his compatriot, freshman James Wald, and their love of DDR, brought the machine to the attention of the NU masses.

“Traffic has been pretty high,” she says. “Every time we walk past the window there’s typically somebody on it, and that’s good, because everything we make in this room goes back into the Curry Student Center or to benefit of the students in some way.”

While she has not played the game yet due to a fear of embarrassment, Cohn is glad that the students have been able to enjoy DDR.

“It’s good to give them something they want,” she says. “As long as kids keep playing it, we’ll keep it.”

The tournament ended after two hours with Kirtz grabbing second and a man under the name “CCC” grabbing first. Whatever their placing, most everyone there was said to have enjoyed the competition immensely.

“Dan knows how to set up a tournament,” said Donner, who placed twelfth in the competition. “It had no problems or discrepancies at all. I hope they do another one.”

James Wald, the DDR enthusiast that The Northeastern News wrote about in October, couldn’t make the tournament due to a term paper, but he does voice disappoint that he couldn’t attend.

“I coulda’ won,” he said.

Wald still plays DDR, often on outings with Donner and the rest of the DDR community, and proclaims that he’s “ten times better than [he] was” in October, and has even lost 45 pounds do to his virtual dancing. Still, he has not had the chance to compete in a tournament yet.

“No big deal, though,” says Wald. “They have tournaments all the time.”

NU’s first DDR “jig” may be up, but it’s made clear that Dance Dance Revolutionaries are looking toward the future.

For the full results of NU’s first DDR tournament, check out http://DDRFreak.com.