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Monday, October 5, 2009

AMC: The Dance Marathon

Last week, the dance marathon for charity, which lasted over two weeks, finally concluded. This All My Children stunt unlike others was to save money instead of spend it as everyone wore the same outfits and limited sets were used. It also capitalized on the fact that Cameron Mathison and Susan Lucci were both contestants on Dancing With the Stars in prior seasons. So did anything happen of interest, well it depends on ones perspective.

This is more of an overview than a summary so if anything is missing that just means it didn't make much of an impression. While writing this, I must admit many songs about dancing raced through my brain including and not limited to, Lady GaGa's Just Dance, Shalimar's Dancing in the Sheets (from the Footloose soundtrack), Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark, an d My Fair Lady's I Could Have Danced All Night.

They showed some more clips of Erica (really Susan Lucci) in Africa. They really didn't make the impact on me surrounded by all the dancing. Unless something went entirely over my head, I was surprised that we didn't see real world advertisements to help those in need overseas.

Tad hosted the event, Krystal manned the phones and neither competed. Baby Trevor was also there with a nanny as Amanda and David danced together. When not on a break, a dancing couple had to be moving and touching at all times. You fall asleep, you are out, if you don't come back to the dance floor quickly enough you are gone.

David caused more problems for Amanda and Jake. Of course, Jake was jealous of David spending so much time Amanda. Jake was able to have some private time with little Trevor. He wante d to take the boy, Amanda and run. To give Jake and Amanda some time, Tad and Krystal ran interference. Erica and David danced and snarked together in one of these portions. When the song ended, Erica told Tad she owed him one. The fact that Amanda would not do this to David troubled Jake. Amanda and Jake had two awful arguments, and it was uncertain how this would affect their marriage.

Annie got special permission to go to the dance marathon. She danced with Ryan, Adam and Scott. Emma and Annie got to say a quick hello, but Opal took the girl home. Annie told Ryan that she is protecting Emma. Scott has an agenda as well that is murky, though he seems to like manipulating Annie, by using her attraction to him. Adam seemed bugged by the attention Scott gave Annie. Since Annie's curfew was 7 am, they were eliminated, before the end of the event.

Kendall watched the event from her walled in room, and saw Liza and Zach dance sexily to try to get more bids. She became disgusted. Liza finally gave up on helping Kendall, and Aidan found out Kendall wasn't in prison.

Marissa and JR danced in the marathon until he became too ill to continue so they went back to his home. Everyone else still thinks he is off the wagon and drinking again.

Pete and Colby danced and were knocked out due to them not receiving enough money to have a rest break. Colby originally was not supposed to be part of the marathon.

The ladies room was a hotbed of activity. Randi, who was drugged by Madison, attacked Taylor. Considering in the very same location, Taylor killed Randi's pimp, and saved Randi it was unintentionally funny. Madison was unhinged and the Hubbards plus Brot confronted her. Brot was the only one to deal with her reasonably, while Natalia nearly took the cliche "cut a b*tch" to heart as she broke the mirror in the ladies' room. Madison then used a shard of glass to cut her own face. They also tried to run Madison out of town, by bringing her to a bus stop, but she remained in Pine Valley. Randi and Frankie quit due to Randi getting drugged, Angie and Jesse stopped dancing to toss the win to Brot and Natalia after David and Amanda were eliminated.

Ryan reminded Erica that the most important thing was helping the people in Africa and not winning the contest. Ryan and Erica lost the trophy due to a chat they had in his office. They nearly had sex, if it Tad hadn’t interrupted to get Erica on the broadcast. Erica signed off the show with Tad and thanked everyone for donating time and money.

Brot and Natalia won the dance marathon, as they were the last couple standing. The duo got a good amount of bids from his friends around the world, on twitter and fellow soldiers. Jesse became interested in Brot becoming a cop, which frustrated Natalia. The two seem to be headed for a contemptuous romance.

Like parties of the past, the charity dance-a-thon for Fusion, had many guests and a decent amount of extras, but it lacked the glitz and the glamor. There were no ball gowns, no big band or familiar music. The money saving stunt went on a little too long for my taste. I was surprised they didn't include some sort of clock, like we've been dancing for three hours, at the end of the third episode of the event. They did tell us when Brot and Natalia won, how many hours they had been on their feet, which was 17.

Going slightly off topic, this reminds me of something that happens in Pine Valley's real world home state, as there is an event called THON sponsored by students at Penn State. This dance marathon is held yearly to raise money, which follows a similar kind of format. In the main event, college students dance for an entire weekend. If we hadn't been told otherwise in the press, I would have thought the students that have raised millions since the 1970s for children with cancer inspired the people in charge at All My Children. Helping people via dance events is nothing new, and hopefully people will pay it forward.

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