The dance marathons - Irish-American Literature

3. The Building and Arena

The buildings are varying, but are usually a dance hall or a club room. There is a dance floor in the center surrounded by a marked off space for box seats, and by rows of bleachers. The training quarters consist of small rooms with rows of cots, and a few training accessories of one sort or another. On the floor there is usually an operating table, and other surgical accessories. The contestants eat on the floor, standing up. A table is usually brought in. I am not familiar with the methods of ventilation, but would suggest that it is obvious that the atmosphere is bad because of the number of people constantly present.

4. The Rules of the Contest

The contestants are required to be in the arena on their feet a specified period out of every hour. Usually a contest starts with forty minutes of "dancing" out of every hour and twenty minutes of rest. The rest is narrowed down to five minutes, and even to a no rest period. The contestants are permitted to leave the floor for hygenic or medicinal purposes, to change their clothing, and the like. The contestants are supposed to dance three minutes out of ten and the judge blows a whistle, announcing the "sprints." However, this rule does not seem to be closely adhered to. The judge also has the power of giving the contestants demerits for lapses of conduct, and for inability to go on with the contest and the like. When a dancer is in bad condition, a state of fever, a state of collapse etc., he or she is frequently required to demonstrate his or her capacity to continue the contest. The judge paces them and they are required to circle the arena a required number of times in a specified period, such as three times in four minutes. The contestants are permitted to sleep on each other's shoulders, and those who have lost their partners are permitted to wander and stumble in a doze. Frequently, particularly if the single contestant is feminine and popular with the spectators, an attendant is provided and she is permitted to sleep on his shoulders. After becoming acclimated to the conditions, the contestants can easily secure from six to nine hours sleep out of every twenty four.

Recently, the White City Ballroom on the South Side of Chicago has inaugurated a super-marathon. The contestants were five couples, the winners of previous marathons and popular with marathon fans. The contest started with three minute rest periods every hour, and was narrowed down to two, and one, and then none; and at last reports two couples remained, and they had gone on this basis over thirteen hundred hours. They receive an hour a day to eat, clean up, and twenty minutes of this hour can be devoted to sleep. The remainder of their sleep must be secured on the floor.

5. The Marathon as a Spectacle