Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Daily File Photo Dance Marathon organizers decided to keep the event's traditional venue - the Louis Room of Norris - by adding outdoor space. DM also considered relocating the charity to accommodate more than 750 dancers expected this year.

After dancing for 30 hours straight in the hot, crowded Louis Room at Norris University Center last March, Bennett Weisse is looking forward to a breath of fresh air this year.

More than 750 students, a record number, are dancing in this year's Dance Marathon, leading the student-run philanthropy to erect a tent on Norris South Lawn to hold the overflow from the Louis Room.

"Dancing out there will be so much fun, a change of pace," said Weisse, a Communication sophomore. "I think its fantastic so many students are participating, 750 dancers, that's almost one-eighth of Northwestern."

The temporary facility to absorb the record number of dancers will be heated, contain bathrooms, and be connected to Norris by a heated corridor, Dance Marathon announced Tuesday.

Dancers will rotate between the attached facility and the Louis Room, spending one to three of 10 three-hour blocks of time at "Club DM."

With more than 750 dancers and about 400 DM committee members at the event, this year's crowd will be too large for the second floor of Norris, DM executive co-chairwoman Tara Corrigan said. Before deciding on the attached facility, they considered other facilities, such as Patten Gym, Corrigan said.

"We worked with (the athletic department), and they were happy to let us use it," the Communication senior said. "We received tremendous support from the administration. But the dancers love Norris, and in the end we thought this was the best option for us."

While in the past so many students applied that DM had to keep some on a wait list, the turnout for registration was so large this year the event had to expand, Corrigan said. The philanthropic event, in which students dance for 30 hours to raise money for a charity, will benefit the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation this year.

Public and community relations co-chairwoman Elizabeth Campbell attributed the boost in student interest to several reasons, including the recently announced Bear Ambassadors program, which matches dancers with pediatric cancer patients that benefit from Bear Necessities.

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