It’s 7:20 a.m. on Sunday morning, and groups of college students are smiling and laughing as they stand together to eat a breakfast of cold waffles and tater tots in the deserted Level 1 in Ackerman Union.
A group in the corner breaks into a spontaneous rendition of a Sublime song, and suddenly dozens of voices join in to sing the line, “Loving is what I’ve got.”
It’s been 20 hours since these students last sat down, and they’ve been awake and dancing through the night in order to raise money and awareness for pediatric AIDS.
This breakfast is a turning point for many in their pledge to dance for 26 hours as it marks the beginning of the final hours when the sun comes out, feet begin to ache, and students must resist the urge to sit down.
“There comes a point in Dance Marathon where you don’t think you can keep going, but you do,” said Emmalinda MacLean, a third-year theater student, after she finished the last lines of the Sublime song.
MacLean was one of 779 students to participate as a dancer at Dance Marathon, each raising a minimum $225 and remaining on his or her feet for the entire 26-hour period. More than 1,000 students also participated as “moralers,” entering the dance floor as support every three hours, or as volunteers. By the end of the event, students raised more than $384,507 toward a cure for pediatric AIDS.
“Dance Marathon allows you to access a deeper strength that you thought you didn’t have,” MacLean said as she finished her breakfast.
She said it’s this aspect that brought her back for her third year of dancing and motivated her to keep moving through the wee hours of the night only hours before.
“(Dancing) is an act of solidarity with people who have to access that deeper human strength every day to survive,” she said.
The night began with kids and youth who are infected with HIV/AIDS or have family members with the disease talk about how the disease affects their lives. They also thanked dancers for their time.
After speaking, many of these kids were found grooving on the dance floor for several hours Saturday night, often in the center of a large dance circle or in the middle of a group of students posing for a picture. Though the kids stayed until almost midnight, hours past a reasonable bedtime, they were never fazed by the late time.
When dancers weren’t out moving on the dance floor, many were found taking a break in the dancer rooms, where each participant was provided with a box to keep their belongings. The walls were decorated with neon signs of encouragement, including “You could be missing your favorite song!” and “Why aren’t you dancing?”
Erin Noud, a first-year biology student, and Katie Lubarsky, a first-year undeclared student, returned to their boxes shortly after 1 a.m. to grab final touches for their ’70s lounge outfits to fit the “Sunset Strip” theme.
The theme of the event changed every three hours, and dancers were encouraged to dress up differently for each theme. Students dressed up in swimsuits and grass skirts for the “Beachin'” theme, among many others.
“Changing costumes keeps you fresh. It makes you feel like you’re starting over and it’s a new dance party,” Noud said, who changed into a Union Jack-print T-shirt and skirt paired with a huge black bow in her curly red hair after returning from her midnight snack.
Noud and Lubarsky called themselves the “dynamic duo,” and said doing their signature moves throughout the event, such as the “stirring pot” and “guns and lasso,” kept them energized.
Lubarsky demonstrated the “guns and lasso” in her brown and green disco dress before hitting the dance floor at 1 a.m. ““ she put her pointed fingers at her hips, then circled one hand above her head like a cowboy.
She said these moves helped her keep dancing because they brought her to a “comfy place” where she forgot how tired she was.
The event also features bands, dance groups and short movies to keep dancers entertained and energized throughout the 26 hours. The band Lady Danville has performed each year since the first Dance Marathon in 2002, and were excited to play at midnight when the event reached its thirteenth hour and halfway point.
“I can’t imagine not being at Dance Marathon. It’s the best place to play because the audience is so energized,” said Michael Garner, piano player for Lady Danville, immediately after finishing their set.
By noon on Sunday, 12 hours after Lady Danville played, most dancers struggled to hide their fatigue as under-eye circles became more apparent a`nd yawns escaped. But the final hour, nicknamed the “power hour,” rejuvenated dancers with classic oldies like Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”
“The last hour is really great. It keeps the adrenaline going,” said Jeff Looby, a second-year business-economics student, who said the last hour helped bring together all the efforts of the event, and “celebrates the positive impact UCLA has on the community.”
Looby said students participate in Dance Marathon because it’s becoming a UCLA tradition, but said after being a dancer he became dedicated to the cause.
As the final minutes counted down, a jumping, cheering crowd seemed like it just started dancing even though the dancers had been on their feet for almost 26 hours. The dance floor was packed with people waving their arms and singing at the top of their lungs. Some dancers were giving high fives, some were beginning to tear up, but all were dancing to the very end.