More than 400 participants danced Friday night at the Shell for the Wisconsin Dance Marathon, raising over $80,000 to be donated to the American Family Children's Hospital.
Adam Wallenfang, a UW-Madison student and co-director of WDM, said the event ran from 7 p.m. Friday until 9 a.m. Saturday and participants were required to be standing or dancing the entire time.
According to Wallenfang, the event raised $80,433 for the children's hospital.
""The event went really, really well,"" he said. ""We were more successful than we were last year.""
According to Wallenfang, participants were entertained throughout the night by various dance performances from UW-Madison teams such as Hypnotiq, Optima Dance, Premiere Dance and Dance Elite, as well as a performance by a local band.
""We tried to have as many varied activities as possible for everyone to keep everyone energized throughout the night,"" he said.
Wallenfang said some of the groups were interactive and taught participants dances such as ballroom and line dances. There was also a video-game area where dancers could play ""Rockband"" and Wii games and an inflatable area where dancers could compete in races with one another.
Emily Kesner, a UW-Madison student and public relations chair of WDM, said they also arranged for ice skating at the Shell for two hours in the middle of the night to keep the night exciting and the dancers busy.
According to Kesner, the WDM leadership team will meet this week to determine how they will allocate the money raised by the dance marathon.
Last year the leadership team chose to fund a program called Family Dinners, in which they paid for and brought meals to the hospital every other Friday night for the patients and their families, she said.
Wallenfang said he was pleased with the amount of money they raised this year, which was about $24,000 more than last year's total.
""All of this money goes to fund programs like family meals at the children's hospital, it goes to help sponsor new medical equipment at the children's hospital,"" he said. ""So we're definitely happy that we can contribute so much money to the kids.""
