Taking the stage for a second time

Photo by Lauren Pond

By Marcy Miranda

They are the ones constantly onstage, encouraging the dancers to keep moving. They present the speakers, the video advertisements, the introductions to the blocks. For the second consecutive year, they are the face of Dance Marathon.

DM emcees Todd Johnson and Adam Welton, also known to dancers and committee members as "TnA," have the task of keeping the crowd energized. The pair made DM history earlier this year when they became the first pair of emcees to host the event for two years in a row.

As the seventh block began, the duo came onstage and reminded the dancers that they were nearing the end.

"We're done with six whole blocks and you're still breathing," said Welton, a Communications sophomore.

Onstage, the duo is all smiles. They radiate energy, moving to the rhythm of the music, laughing and joking with one another. No one would ever guess that once the two step offstage, they admit to being equally exhausted as the dancers.

"(At this point last year), we were out of it," said Welton.

Johnson, a Medill sophomore, added that last year, most of his voice had been lost by the half-way point. "I was talking in a hard whisper," he said.

Welton admits that keeping the crowd energized can often take a toll on him physically, but it's a task he is willing to undertake.

"It takes a lot out of me," Welton said. "Backstage is my haven, I try to re-energize there."

Blinking away the fatigue, Johnson's eyes glimmer as he thinks of the block he is looking forward to the most: the last one.

"(By that point,) people are in another place," Johnson said. "They've been dancing for 27 hours, they're running on pure adrenaline, the totals (of money raised) are coming in and everything is coming together," Johnson said.