Moralers give dancers tons o' fun

They are yellow, and they are happy. Very happy. In a sea of weary faces and aching bodies, they can be easily spotted. They bounce around the room with yellow shirts and constant smiles. They are there to make everyone happy. And their job is not easy.

Morale team members provide encouragement and moral support for dancers. They encourage, excite and massage. They bring food and mail and toys to the dancers. They control when the dancers eat and break and even when they can go to the bathroom.

The idea remains the same, but the methods have certainly changed in the past 25 years.

Dancers had to do it with just a little help from their friends at the first dance marathon in 1973. They relied on friends to bring yo-yos, tennis balls, basketballs and playing cards to stay amused . . . and awake. Friends also brought food and drinks to the famished dancers.

Cris Guenter was half of the winning couple at the dance marathon in 1973. She was a freshman that year, the dance marathon was a new experiment and there were no yellow shirts visible in the HUB Ballroom that first night. Morale came solely from friends and students who lived on her floor in the Arts and Architecture interest house in Leete Hall, Guenter said. She is now a professor in the department of education at California State University, Chico.

"We had no idea what we were getting into, some people from our floor told me they entered me in a 30-hour dance contest," she said.

Guenter and her partner Sam Walker had to be resourceful in devising ways to fend off boredom. Friends brought puppets and toys for the dancers. Someone attached ropes to a board of plywood and the dancers would suspend the ropes from their necks so they could play cards on it, Guenter said.

"We even did handstands; we took turns dancing on our hands. They would also call out dances we didn't know how to do, and we would just improvise."

The dancers kept a journal throughout the weekend, writing on an index card. The entries became funnier as they became less coherent, Guenter said. She still has that journal from 25 years ago.

The first case of organized morale at a dance marathon appeared to have happened quite by coincidence, she said.

Guenter and Walker had written the number 13 on the backs of their T-shirts with magic marker. A local DJ learned that couple 13 had not raised any money in the first 6 hours, and he told listeners to come down and support unlucky "couple number 13". The stands soon filled with supporters.

David Dapko, adviser for dance marathon, was a freshman in 1985 when he first participated as a dancer. Morale has evolved from what it was when he was a dancer, Dapko said. But a few things have not changed -- the yo-yos, tennis balls and playing cards have endured.

Every decade contributes its own fads to the dance marathon, Dapko said. He remembers hacky-sacks being the popular item during the mid '80s. Koosh balls and Nerf balls made their appearance in the late '80s and early '90s.

"I also remember Cabbage patch dolls being a big thing in the '80s," he said.

The Tickle-Me-Elmo may be the morale toy of choice for this year, Dapko said.

At 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, the moraler's enthusiasm can be somewhat overwhelming, Dapko said.

"After I got fatigued, I thought if one more shiny, happy person comes up to me, I'm going to lose it," he said. "But, I was amazed that there were all these people willing to be there for 48 hours when they didn't have to be."

Dapko went on to become overall morale chair in 1989, and ideas such as dancer guides and training sessions for moralers began around that time, he said.

Today, dancers get a complete guidebook, telling them everything from how to eat the week before, to what kind of underwear they should wear.

Each couple receives a morale buddy, who spend their time giving massages, bringing food and trying to keep dancers spirits up in the wake of endless hours of physical and mental drain.

Every morale team will lead the dancers in at least two theme activities throughout the weekend this year, said Rhonda Penn, overall morale chair for 1997. These themes include the New Year's Eve party, which has been a tradition since 1979.

Another major function of the morale teams is to create the line dance and teach it to the dancers. This dance will be repeated about 30 times during the weekend, Penn said.

A picture which ran in The Daily Collegian Monday morning after the dance marathon in 1976, shows a group of dancers doing that year's line dance. The image would scare most dancers today -- their hands are in a position that frighteningly resembles the Macarena.

Penn would not elaborate on whether the Macarena would be any part of this year's dance. She wouldn't say much about the '97 dance at all.

"If I told you I'd have to kill you," she said when asked about specifics on the song and the dance steps. "Let's just say it includes a lot of Penn State stuff and a lot of 'Thon stuff."

One of the morale team's biggest responsibilities comes at a crucial time for any dancer -- bathroom break. Dancers are only allowed to tend to their bodily functions at five specified times. They can usually handle the trip to the facilities on their own, however the moralers step in to assist immediately afterward.

As soon as the dancers leave the bathrooms, they sprint down the hallway into the dance hall and slide down a mat covered with baby powder. At this point, the yellow shirts really get a chance to reach out and touch someone.

They form a massage tunnel, where dancers get a vigorous full body message. Most return to the dance floor from the mat invigorated and covered in powder.

The morale teams also does mail call featuring Mike "the Mailman" Herr, and the walk which lets dancers get outside for fresh air at two designated times during the weekend.

Penn agreed that morale team members have to have special personality qualities.

"They have to be a little crazy," she said. "They have to have a lot of energy, we look for a real positive attitude. And it's very important for them to understand why they are there."

The role of the morale team has grown and evolved just as the dance marathon has grown on the whole. However, Guenter thinks the dancers of 1997 will probably be affected in the same way she and her friends were in 1973.

"I bet that around the first week or two of February, there are a lot of people who participated in all those years, from 1973 on, who still think about this," she said. "Ever since that marathon, every time I hear music I can't stand still."