I love the line dance.

I love the line dance so much, in fact, that I’ve probably done it about 40 times since THON. During one of these sessions my roommate and I got to thinking: How do they figure out what topics and songs they’re going to use in the line dance? We determined they probably keep track of things that happen since the previous THON, and we decided to do the same.

So, on a small whiteboard in our room, we’ve been writing down significant Penn State, national, and pop culture news since September, and now that the 2016 Line Dance is surely just about completed, we’ve compiled the final list of things that we think will definitely be included.

Here’s what we came up with. Based on past line dances and the major events that happened both at Penn State and around the world since THON 2015, we believe that the following items will be mentioned in the line dance in one capacity or another.

Penn State Things

• Tributes to Tally Sepot and Kayla Nakonechni
• The Susquehanna Service Dogs or other Puppies on campus
• Saquon “Hurdle” or “Jumpman” Barkley
• Fat Guy Kicker Joey Julius
• Hackenberg going to the NFL or a farewell to him
• #1T1H or something about Women’s Soccer winning the NCAA Championship
• The TaxSlayer Bowl or football in Jacksonville
• The Fraser Center or, more specifically, Target coming downtown
• Wings over now closes at 1 a.m.

In The News

• “Pray for Paris” (if they need a rhyme, “Paris” will be pronounced the French way, “pair-ee”)
• Same sex marriage legalized in the United States or “Love Wins”
• “Black Lives Matter” or “All Lives Matter”
• Donald Trump running to “Make America Great Again”
• Largest Powerball ever
• Tributes to Snape & Ziggy Stardust (Alan Rickman & David Bowie)
• Pope comes to U.S., Philly
• Snowstorm Jonas hits the East Coast (may be cutting it close, lyrics may already be completed)

Pop Culture

• Justin Bieber comes back, specifically the song “Sorry”
• “Hello, it’s me”
• Caitlyn Jenner
• USWNT wins the World Cup
• Hoverboards
• “Netflix & Chill”
• One Direction break up (well, Zayn leaving) (My roommate is convinced this will be there, I’m not so sure)
• Hotline Bling and/or the Hotline Bling dance and/or a dance break like they did with the Schmoney dance but with Hotline Bling
• Kanye 2020
• “Is it white and gold or blue and black,” or some mention of “The Dress”
• Facebook “Tasty” food videos
• Stars Wars
• Steve Harvey mixing up the Miss Universe winner

General/Specific Predictions

• Somewhere, I’m predicting the chorus, they’ll say something along the lines of “blast off to a cure”
• A lot of B-words/B-word alliterations (Believe Beyond Boundaries will be just one of many)
• Something related to Fetty Wap

Songs That Will Be Used For Intro/Interludes/Dance Breaks

• “Lean On” by Major Lazer
• “Watch Me” by Silento
• “Shut Up And Dance” by Walk the Moon
• “My House” by Flo Rida
• “Uma Thurman” by Fall Out Boy
• Some early 2000s throwbacks
• The Dab. Someone’s gonna Dab

***

While we like to think we’ve done a pretty comprehensive job, there’s definitely stuff we missed. Let us know in the comments what else will make its way into the line dance!

Special thanks to my roommate Maggie DeWitt for helping me compile the list since September (and doing the 2015 line dance with me once a month).