$2,700 Raised for 23 Agencies : A Marathon Dance Against Drug Abuse

The fight against drug abuse took a different twist over the weekend as about 300 people set out to rock around the clock in Santa Monica, although less than 30 finished the 12-hour, charity dance marathon.

“I could still dance,” Sylvia Solana said after the music stopped at about noon Sunday.

Even in the final hour, most of those remaining--some still with partners, others individually--jumped and pranced to the strains of the event’s final song, “Shout” from the movie “Animal House,” like the night was just beginning, not as if they were ready to crawl into bed.

Randal Lawson, 39, a music teacher at Santa Monica College, was one of those who stayed. But by 5:30 a.m. he was seated at a table near the dance floor that had been set up at the Market in the Colorado Place, an office complex on Colorado Avenue.

“I just couldn’t go on. But it was fun to stay around and watch,” he said.

Nearly $2,700 was raised for the Associates for Troubled Children, a nonprofit organization that raises money for 23 agencies fighting substance abuse, said Noemi Pollack, public relations consultant for Maxpeed Footwear Corp., sponsors of the marathon.

“We have better things to do with 12 hours if it’s not for a good cause,” said Karen Carson, who with her partner, Richard Stierl, raised $750 in pledges.

Carson and Stierl, who are dance instructors at an Arthur Murray Studio, won the first-place prize, a weekend in San Francisco.

The marathon was like a party, the couple agreed.

“But,” Carson added, “it was a sober party. It was people doing something for a reason, instead of wasting time getting drunk and being irresponsible.”

Carson, 20, and Stierl, 29, said the anti-substance abuse message was important to them. Carson has worked with abused children. Stierl said five of his high school friends died from drug abuse and he watched another’s painful withdrawal from heroin addiction.

Solana and her partner, Richard Kaltenberg, also lasted the entire marathon and received second prize, a weekend trip to Santa Catalina Island.

Solana explained their durability: “The important thing was that we decided we were going to go the 12 hours before we started.”

“I haven’t danced but a couple of hours in the last five years,” Kaltenberg said.

The 15-minute breaks each hour and a supply of high-protein snacks gave him the endurance he needed, he said.

Ana Lenchantin, 15, a student at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, danced with a group of friends, and received the third-place prize--dinner for two at Bernard’s with limousine service.

Pollack said dancers were asked to donate the shoes they arrived in to the needy, but only 28 pairs were donated, even though female dancers were given new tennis shoes.

“We were very disappointed in that. We thought more people would give up their shoes,” Pollack said.

She was pleased with the turnout, however, and the dancers’ durability.

“I really thought there wouldn’t be anyone left after 12 hours,” she said.