Shonica Gooden and Nile Ruff were performing pirouettes to Lil Wayne’s “I’m Single” when the music stopped abruptly. Both of the dancers rose into a second position relevé and froze.             After two minutes and 45 seconds of trembling legs, Ruff’s heels hit the floor and Gooden was announced the winner of the Black Student Union’s (BSU) Dance-A-Thon, which was held on Friday, Nov. 12 and raised almost $40 for the club.            “I thought [Dance-A-Thon] was a great idea. I think they should do it again. It was fun, and I had a good time,” said Gooden, a senior dance major and BSU member. “I loved the DJ, and I love the BSU crew. They really helped us and rooted [for] us.”            At the BSU Dance-A-Thon, themed “Please Don’t Stop the Music,” there was only one rule: never stop dancing. The only exception was when the music actually stopped, in which case the dancers froze in their last pose and refrained from moving. Even the slightest movement resulted in elimination from the competition.            The five dancers participating in the Dance-A-Thon were subjected to an hour of tasks to complete, including dancing as fast as humanly possible, and in slow motion. A third portion featured Michael Jackson songs and only dance moves in the pop artist’s style, such as the moonwalk, were permitted. The final task consisted of two dancers performing ballet movements, with the lengthy relevé serving as a tiebreaker.”I thought it was really funny and energetic,” said BSU President Marguerite Sutton. “Watching the people dance was hilarious.”In addition to judging the competition, Sutton also served as the disc jockey for the night, playing upbeat hip-hop songs from her laptop.Operating on a strict budget for the Dance-A-Thon, BSU only spent approximately $20 of the club’s money on refreshments and water bottles for the exhausted dancers.            “We try to conserve … things we can do without, like a DJ,” said Jonathan Flemings, a sophomore theater major and BSU member. “But for necessary things that you must have, such as food, that’s the kind of thing we go into our account for.” Sutton said the evening was particularly busy because the Pittsburgh Connections performance and other events were taking place simultaneously. Although the turnout for the dance was smaller than BSU had hoped, Sutton said she was not disappointed.            “I wish a lot more people would have come, but with the people we had, it worked out pretty well,” Sutton said. “I would advertise more [next time]. It was such a short notice as far as getting the ‘okay’ from student activities if we could do this event. We didn’t have much time to promote, so we did it mostly through the Internet.”On the verge of collapsing after an hour of non-stop dancing, Gooden said she motivated herself by thinking, “Keep dancing. Don’t stop. ‘Fifty dollars,’ … was in my head.”As the winner of the competition, Gooden received a $50 cash prize, which came from the money in BSU’s account that was leftover from previous semesters.            Gooden decided to share her win with runner-up Ruff, a freshman dance major, who was subjected to performing tricks such as leaps and cartwheels during the competition as a punishment for arriving late to the event.            “I’m going to be a good sport … so I’m going to give her a little bit of the money,” Gooden said. “I mean, not half, but she’ll get some of the money.”            The donations collected during the Dance-A-Thon will be used to sponsor BSU’s upcoming Soul Food Social.            “We basically just wanted to have a fundraiser and have fun with the people on campus,” Sutton said. “Everybody had fun, so that’s all that matters.”