Dancers in the 31st annual Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon broke a record this year as they became the first group to learn the entire line dance in 68 minutes, beating last year's time by 11 minutes.

As usual, this year's line dance, which is performed every hour of Thon, mingled pop culture with Penn State flair, offering dancers and spectators alike a quick lesson in current events. The lyrics to the line dance mention a variety of events -- from MTV filming at the homecoming football game, to campus construction projects, to the election of Pennsylvania's new governor with the line, "Dude, you're getting Rendell."

Evan Aponte, a morale captain, said when his group brainstormed for this year's dance, they tried to include references to events and celebrities that people would know, such as Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Mazzante and Larry Johnson.

Thon dancers had mixed opinions of this year's line dance.

"I was surprised at how quickly it went. I thought it would take three hours [to learn]," said Emily Winton (junior-accounting), a dancer for Phi Chi Theta business fraternity. "I'm looking forward to practicing it 48 more times."

Another dancer said she could see how the line dance would be beneficial to the dancers' as they spent more and more hours on their feet.

"You can tell the moves are gonna help later with the stretching," said Shilpa Sood (senior-accounting), who was also dancing for Phi Chi Theta.

Andy Di Zio (senior-finance), a dancer from Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, was optimistic about learning the dance.

"It seemed a little complicated at first, but I think [the morale captain who taught the dance] gave really good directions," he said.

Marty Waddington (junior-journalism), who also danced for Tau Kappa Epsilon, agreed with him.

"By the end we'll be pros," Waddington said.

Some dancers preferred line dances from past Thons.

"I think last year's was better. I don't know if they could beat last year's," said John Giannantonio (junior-biochemistry), who was dancing for Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity. "I haven't learned it fully yet. I'll probably learn it by hour 20 cold."