For the first time in 12 years, NOVAdance will host its annual dance marathon at the Dixon Center on Villanova’s Cabrini campus instead of the Jake Nevin Field House.
The relocation follows ongoing renovations to Jake Nevin Field House and growing attendance at the dance marathon. Discussions about the move began after last year’s event, and NOVAdance committee members toured the Cabrini campus at the end of the 2024-25 school year to see the facilities.
“I think it’s a great way, from Villanova’s perspective, to get students over to Cabrini and showcase all that it has to offer, and it’s equally beneficial for us,” NOVAdance operations chair Pat Cregan said.
While the university decided to move the marathon’s location, NOVAdance committee members and their Villanova and B+ advisors were involved in the conversations.
“The university is renovating Jake Nevin, and they did not believe that it would have the capacity to host our event this year,” co-executive director of NOVAdance Grant Lemay said. “At the same time, part of the reason we moved was because the capacity was getting too small.”
“I was on the operations team last year, so I got a firsthand look at how NOVAdance was really functioning within Jake Nevin, and what we saw is that we were just outgrowing it,” Cregan said.
Buses will run from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the day of the dance marathon, Saturday, March 28. Buses will pick up students every 20 minutes from Bartley Exchange and bring them to the Dixon Center.
“We hope that we’ve built up enough energy and excitement on this campus that people are willing to take that 15-minute bus ride instead of the five-minute walk to Jake Nevin,” Lemay said.
Hosting the dance marathon at this location offers new opportunities. In past years, Jake Nevin Field House was used the week leading up to the event, limiting the setup time.
Because no one else is using the facility on the Cabrini campus, NOVAdance members will have more time to organize and decorate the new space.
“Cabrini, I think, is just generally a nicer facility,” NOVAdance logistics director Annie Carr said. “It’s newer. It’s updated. The bathrooms are nicer. We have different spaces, so the reflection room will be in a new area. We have more hallway space to decorate.”
In addition to these opportunities, there have also been challenges in hosting the event in a new space.
“The biggest challenge is the unknown,” Carr said. “We’re so used to reusing the same layouts and signage and things, so it’s been an undertaking to be creative and think about what’s different. We can’t use the same plan we’ve used for the past several years.”
The location change has been communicated to students through emails, social media content and flyers.
NOVAdance committee members hope that student attendance at the dance marathon will remain similar to last year’s event despite the move off campus.
“It’s the exact same amazing event that people enjoyed,” co-executive director of NOVAdance Annie O’Brien said. “It’s just maybe ten minutes farther. We’re biased, but it’s definitely worth the extra few minutes.”
