Dance Marathon has officially started, with the new emcees Benjamin Singer and Scott Olstad revving up the crowd for 30 hours of dancing. For the first time, the dancers will all be in a tent outside of Norris, instead of in the Louis Room. Scores of Dance Marathon committee members funneled more than 800 dancers into the tent just before 7 p.m., and for more than 20 minutes their cheering and clapping echoed through the basement.

Some dancers seemed relieved to be leaving the crowded rooms where they had been guarding their spaces on the carpet in the hours leading up to the marathon. Others, curled up in the fetal position on the floor, seemed more reluctant to join the throng rushing towards the tent.