Talk:Dance Marathon

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Shouldn't this contain information on depression-era dance contests called dance marathons? Wdarkk 10:01, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

The article should be merged/redirected to marathon dancing which describes the traditional depression-era dance contests. The article itself seems to be specific to the Penn State Dance Marathon. -Ichabod 04:47, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Dance Marathons are different from marathon dancing, thus the suggestion is inappropriate. Events that raise millions each year for charities deserve to be separated from a historic practice. Rather than merging, there should be a disambiguation. For instance, this should become Dance Marathon (Fundraiser) or something similar. Additionally, the links at thew bottom of marathon dancing to modern Dance Marathons should be removed from that page. Also, the current Dance Marathon page should possibly be edited to reflect the more general concept of the modern fundraiser. There is no evidence of links between the Great Depression dance marathons and the modern fundraisers, so I see no reason for the merge. cowsandmilk 03:52, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't get the distinction. In both cases people are trying to dance for long periods of time as a feat of endurance. The main difference is that the original dance marathons were contests with cash prizes. And I know its not direct evidence, but I think it's fairly plausible that the idea for the first Penn State dance marathon in 1973 might have drawn at least some inspiration from the popular 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. As it stands this article is similar to having a separate article about charity golf tournaments that makes no mention of the fact that any other type of golf ever existed.Burnmp3s 04:41, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I see the distinction from golf tournaments being that people who participate in charity golf tournaments do so partly because they play golf. People don't participate in Dance Marathons because of some depression era practice. Additionally, the events are distinctly different. In a charity golf tournament, you do the same thing you do in a regular game of golf. In most Dance Marathons, the people are required only to stand, as opposed to marathon dancing, where the people truly danced for long periods of time. Other differentiations come as charity golf tournaments raise money mainly through registration fees, while Dance Marathons raise money in a myriad of ways beyond the day-of activities. These include alumni and faculty events, silent auctions, and, at Penn State, the recycling program actually feeds money into their Dance Marathon. That's why there's that place with the clarification tag where it says "Dance Marathon is an all year round activity". I think there is no doubt that Dance Marathons came out of the idea of marathon dancing, especially as the earliest ones had cash prizes, but it has grown into something distinct to deserve its own article. The comparison is more like the idea of combining baseball and softball into the same article, not golf tournaments and charity golf tournaments.cowsandmilk 18:28, 22 January 2007 (UTC)