For 700 dancers, Saturday morning signified the beginning of a weekend-long commitment to a good cause. But for fourth-year economics student Jessica Tsuei, it also signified the end of a long commitment that began many weekends before.
Tsuei, the 2006 UCLA Dance Marathon Committee dancer relations chair, woke up at 6 a.m. the day of the event after only two hours of sleep to help put on what would be her last Dance Marathon ever.
She was one of 88 students on the Dance Marathon Committee, which had been planning the 26-hour event for months.
Responsible for bringing together many different aspects of Dance Marathon, including fundraising, morale and dancer issues, and safety, Tsuei could be found Saturday morning running around clutching a clipboard with timelines and spreadsheets to help her keep track of what people needed to be doing and at what time.
The time she did not spend moving was spent mostly in the committee room, which served as a multipurpose storage and dressing room for the members of the Dance Marathon Committee and their belongings for the weekend.
The walls of the room were plastered with colored posters, Christmas lights and other decorations. Backpacks, clothing and shiny bits of costumes were strewn across the floor.
Two committee members sat cross-legged on the ground counting the money raised throughout the event Saturday morning, before the dancing started. In total, Tsuei said, there was about $50,000 or $60,000 in the committee room alone, which explained the presence of a uniformed police officer stationed outside.
But overseeing so many operations did not mean Tsuei’s job was limited to just delegation.
When the four-year veteran of Dance Marathon found that nobody had stocked the bathrooms, she did it herself.
While ripping open cardboard boxes of hand soap, feminine products, mouthwash, tissues, hairspray and dental floss, Tsuei juggled her radio and cell phone, trying to find a replacement for a dance captain who had gotten food poisoning the night before.
It was nightfall before Tsuei, now sporting a highlighter-yellow wig, finished counting money and was finally ready to hit the dance floor.
By then, the ballroom was packed, and almost everybody there was moving to the music.
The dancing continued into the next day, and Tsuei continued to go between working the event and enjoying it.
Near the 24-hour mark, Tsuei made her way down from the committee room without her voice, which she had lost sometime during the night.
“I just finished this long crying session,” said a barely audible Tsuei. “I finally just freshened myself up and now I’m going to enjoy the last two and a half hours.”
Tsuei first got involved with Dance Marathon in 2003 because she thought it would be fun.
“At first, I wasn’t big on the fundraising thing,” she said. But by the end, “it was the most moving thing ever.”
Tsuei said she was so tired 18 hours into the event that year that she had to crouch in the corner near the bathrooms.
“But then (the dancer relations chair at the time) found me. He got me orange juice and made me eat some fruit,” Tsuei said. Dance Marathon raised $40,000 that year, and she said it was his support that got her through.
The experience made her realize that she “needed to be a part of this,” she said.
“That’s when the cause became a much bigger thing,” said Tsuei, who has sat on the committee and watched the event grow ever since.
”It started as a 26-hour party, but it became a great fundraiser,” she said.
Dance Marathon moved into Ackerman Grand Ballroom last year after outgrowing its previous two venues, the Covel Grand Horizon Room and Bradley International Hall.
But the new, larger venue meant a lot of technical and logistical problems because the committee was figuring things out by trial and error, Tsuei said.
Solving many of those problems this year has allowed the committee to put a stronger emphasis on the cause, which Tsuei said was lost in the shuffle last year.
“We’ve kept the heart of it. It’s my ideal Dance Marathon,” Tsuei said. “I’ve put my all in and worked extra hard because I know it’s my last one. It’s really the best way to go out.”
Tsuei said if Dance Marathon continues to increase in size, the event may have to be moved to Pauley Pavilion.
And after that, she grinned, “We’re going to have to Staples Center it.”
In the last hour, committee members took the stage and danced together.
“You’re just so happy at that point, and proud of what you’ve accomplished,” Tsuei said. “These people have been with you all 26 hours and you just love them.”
DJs played the last couple songs, including Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and The Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited,” as dancers, moralers and some parents put their arms around each other.
After counting down the final seconds, the entire ballroom erupted in hugs, tears and sounds of accomplishment mixed with relief.
After 26 hours and over a quarter of a million dollars later, the dancers had accomplished what they had pledged to do and were finally allowed to take a seat on the ballroom floor.
And Tsuei, along with 87 other committee members, made it happen.