“Potiche” starts with Catherine Deneuve in lurid red sweatpants, three ever-classy adidas stripes snaking down her legs, jogging in a park. She stops her exercise to coo at the wildlife around her, emitting oohs and aahs at deer and birds, seemingly enthralled. She finds one squirrel so captivating that she pens a short poem about it on the spot

Throughout the 26 hours of Dance Marathon, participants pumped their fists, jumped up and down and bobbed their heads to the beats of the Black Eyed Peas and Journey, among other artists.

The hallway at Ackerman Union looks like a hillbilly convention. Most people seem to have taken the “power tool” theme as a go-ahead to wear paisley bandanas, yellow plastic helmets and dungarees.

What better way to spice up an event than with an onstage marriage proposal?

“I’m Too Sexy” played as a fairy, a girl in a leopard costume and a guy with only a UCLA towel protecting his dignity stand in a row on stage.

Ackerman Grand Ballroom just saw the Dance Marathon’s costume contest, where the winners were chosen by the level of reaction they received from the audience. The winners were a space cowboy, a giant leprechaun and a group dressed in pink onesies.

More than 1,500 students in pajamas. The new “dream” theme makes most of the dancers look like they’ve just rolled out of bed, albeit with a lot of energy. In fact, this could be an over-caffeinated De Neve Plaza breakfast scene.

Only 15 people have come to the First Aid table on the side of the dance floor, manned by the Pediatric AIDS Committee. The stand is handing out ibuprofen and Band-Aids, as the most common complaints have been of knee, back and foot pain.

“Never put Icy-Hot on your vagina.” Crucial advice from the Pediatric Aids Coalition, kindly posted on the women’s restroom walls.

Dance Marathon 2011, themed “Power Up,” is fewer than 24 hours away! While your fellow Bruins are getting ready for 26 hours on their feet, we here at the Daily Bruin are doing our own prep work and will be right in the mix, reporting on the latest events as they happen.

History, fiction and reality intertwine in “Even the Rain,” which follows a Spanish film production company as they shoot a 16th century New World epic in Bolivia.