It’s been a long time coming…and with the opening lines sung, everyone erupted into cheers. Yet, this was not at a concert, nor was it a live show we were cheering on; instead, it was the pre-recorded Eras Tour movie that had everyone clapping along. By the 1989 set, everyone was out of their chairs and dancing along as the opening notes to Style played. While in a normal movie-going experience, this would have been considered extremely impolite, for this movie, it was exactly what Taylor requested..but why?

I admit…going into the movie, I thought that I would not dance along and only maybe quietly hum along to the movie as it played. I was even skeptical about getting all dressed up for the movie and mostly did it to humor my younger cousins, who I was going with. As I put glitter all over all of our faces, I thought for sure we would be out of place. We weren’t going to the theater opening night, but a few weeks late, so I thought for sure that all the die-hard swifties who would have dressed up would no longer even be at the theaters.

I was wrong. We arrived at the theater, and already ahead of us were 2 little girls in sparkly princess dresses and blow-up microphones. Behind us was a group of college girls who carried their Taylor Swift flag high and wore their friendship bracelets proudly. Once in the theater, in the back corner, was a group of women who appeared to be over 40 and were vibrating with excitement at seeing the movie. 

After the opening chords of the movie, shaken out of our stupor, everyone in the theater started to join in as Taylor finished the Lover set. Instead of quietly humming along, I was shouting the lyrics, joined in by the rest of my theater. Unable to contain their excitement, my little cousins quickly dragged me out of my seat to go dance at the front of the theater as the Fearless set started. Yet, to my surprise, we were not the only ones dancing. The little girls before us were putting on much of a show, much to the amusement of the rest of the theater. As we reached reputation, there was not one person not singing along, and everyone, excluding the little girls, excitedly joined in for the 123 LGB chant for “Delicate.” As we neared 1989, no one in the theater could resist strutting it out for “Style.”

For my little cousins, the movie was a chance to dress up and go to the Taylor Swift concert that they never got the chance to go to. For me, it was more than that. It was a chance to scream along with the songs that I used to listen to by myself on my little CD player. It was a chance to go all out and just have fun dancing and singing. I believe that everyone who goes should experience a theater as energetic as mine. There is no other way to listen to Taylor than by doing the Style strut, fearless heart, or Bejeweled twirl. So yes, make the friendship bracelets.