Shadowing Practice: 218.2 - English Story: Irregular Verbs with Dance Marathons - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi, everybody.
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My name is Shauna, and this is the American English Podcast.
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My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States.
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Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting.
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Let's do it.
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When I lived in Berlin years ago, I used to go to nightclubs where the music was loud.
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Techno, house music, there was a lot of jumping up and down.
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Now, it wasn't really my go-to style of music, but I tagged along with friends, and to be honest, it was a good workout.
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Most of the time, I felt like my jump roping skills were all that I needed.
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And, of course, stamina.
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Stamina is the physical or mental strength to keep doing something for a long time.
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I needed stamina to keep jumping up and down to techno music.
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Back then, my stamina also came in the form of Red Bull.
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And my youth.
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The point is, for that genre of music, I didn't need dance lessons to get by.
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Then I moved to Colombia.
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Well, I guess you could say I went on vacation.
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For three months in 2015, I was in Barranquilla, the birthplace of Shakira.
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and no surprise, the city moved differently.
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From an outsider's perspective, which I was an outsider, I was amazed.
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Little corner bars that served bar food and snacks during the day would turn into casual dance floors at nighttime,
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and everybody got out of their chairs.
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Grandma, grandpa, grandchildren.
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I'd watch, trying not to be creepy.
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And all I could think was, what?
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Look at that fancy footwork.
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Look at them move their hips.
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It's not just Shakira.
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As a gringa in Colombia, I could immediately see how deeply ingrained dancing is into the culture, especially partner dancing.
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How often does the average American dance?
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I'd be willing to guess that most people in the U.S would answer rarely or occasionally.
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I decided to look it up.
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According to a large U.S health survey,
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about 20% of adults who exercised in their free time said dancing was one of their activities.
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But wait a minute, that's out of the people who actually exercise.
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Hmm, so significantly less than 20%?
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Was there ever a time in U.S history when dancing was on more people's minds?
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Yes.
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In fact, there was a time in U.S history when dancing was a main event across U.S states.
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It was broadcast, it drew in participants from all walks of life,
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and audiences at all hours of the day and night.
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In today's lesson, we're going to talk about dance marathons.
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By the end of today's lesson, you'll have learned all about this culturally significant event,
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and you'll also have learned 10 common irregular verbs, most of them related to movement.
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After you hear this wild story, we'll go through each verb in depth for reinforcement.
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At the very end, I'll share a few fun facts about dancing in the U.S and more details about this story.
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Without any further ado, let's begin.
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In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, dance marathons became strangely popular across the United States.
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And when I say dance marathon,
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I don't mean to say that people would run a marathon while dancing. That would be hilarious.
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No, it was slightly different, but equally as peculiar as the notion of people running and dancing.
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At dance marathons, participants would dance,
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walk, and move with their partner for days and sometimes weeks on end.
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Weeks.
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Weeks of dancing without going home.
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If you're like me, when I first heard this, I was like, no way.
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That's unbelievable.
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Why would anyone dance for weeks? And how?
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How could they do that physically and mentally?
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Let me explain from the beginning.
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It all started in 1923.
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That year, a New York dance instructor named Alma Cummings decided to see how long she could dance without stopping.
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It turned out 27 hours.
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She danced through a Manhattan Ballroom for 27 hours straight.
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In that time, she had six different partners.
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They all got tired and needed to stop, but Alma never left the dance floor.
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News of Alma's dancing record spread across the United States.
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After all, world records, endurance and strength tests had gained popularity with the Olympics.
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The Olympics came back in the 1920s, really strong, and people wanted to see how far they could push their bodies.
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So Alma's endurance dance was newsworthy.
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She made the headlines.
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And as a result, dancers across the country raced to break her record.
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Many, of course, failed.
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27 hours is a long time to dance.
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But it was eventually broken nine times, and not just in New York City.
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Interest had spread across the states.
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Promoters in New York City saw that and realized the potential.
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People liked hearing about dancers dancing for 27 hours.
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What if they could watch?
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So they began organizing local competitions for endurance dancing, like the Dance Derby of the Century,
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which took place at Madison Square Garden in 1928.
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Large audiences came and watched as a form of entertainment.
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It all started as a wholesome activity, but then the Great Depression happened.
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At the height of the Great Depression, which started in October of 1929,
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the unemployment rate in the U.S hit 25%.
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percent.
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Families across the country struggled to put food on the table.
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So when dance halls started offering cash prizes and free meals, as well as places to sleep,
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thousands of desperate individuals signed up to participate.
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What was it like at these events?
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Imagine walking into a giant ball room lit with bright stage lights and crowded with curious spectators.
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Jazz bands played at some hours of the day, while contestants, who are the dancers,
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and the audience, also known as the crowd, sang along to familiar songs.
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The rules of the competition were surprisingly strict.
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Contestants usually had to remain moving for about 45 minutes out of every hour, day and night.
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They were given short breaks to eat, wash up, or nap.
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And if they didn't wake up, judges used smelling salts and even ice water to force them awake.
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competitions forced dancers to eat while walking, so they would have eggs or oatmeal while shuffling across the dance floor.
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If they stopped moving on the dance floor,
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collapsed for too long, or failed one of the derby races across the ballroom floor,
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essentially just running at high speeds with their partner around the dance floor, they could be eliminated immediately.
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Nobody was really sure at the get-go how long the competition would last.
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Many imagined they'd dance for a night or two and then go home.
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Oftentimes, dancers found themselves there for days with no end in sight.
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So when these competitions started, participants were energized.
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Some participants spun around the room doing the Lindy Hop.
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Crowds screamed and cheered as the male dancers flung their partners over their heads.
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Other popular dances included the Charleston, with fast footwork and swinging arms.
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or the jitterbug.
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Slower dances included the foxtrot and the waltz.
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At the beginning, the dancing was impressive and fun to watch.
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As the nights passed, participants got increasingly more exhausted.
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The tired dancers swung each other across the floor.
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Every once in a while,
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an announcer sprang onto the stage to dramatically announce eliminations or yell stories into the microphones to keep the crowd entertained.
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Meanwhile, the dancers kept going.
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They slid across the floor like zombies.
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Some contestants were so out of it that they slept on their partner's shoulders while swaying to the music.
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Rather than calling quits, some participants danced until they collapsed.
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If they fell on their knees for too long, they were out.
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In those moments, their partners shook them awake.
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Even when feet bled, the music continued.
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Dance marathons went on for days, and sometimes weeks.
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In 1933, Callum de Villier
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and Vani Kuczynski won a marathon in Massachusetts after
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dancing for roughly 3,780 continuous hours more than 157 days.
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That's more than five months.
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During the Great Depression, marathons were cheap, all-night entertainment.
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Audiences paid about 25 cents to watch, and they could stay as long as they wanted after paying admission.
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They were popular.
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Some people even snuck out of their houses late at night to watch the performances.
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Some wandered in after work and sat in the stands, eating snacks and smoking cigarettes.
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Some people bet on their favorite contestants.
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The point is, crowds filled the ballrooms day and night.
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Eventually, the dances became a national obsession. In fact, historians estimate
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that nearly every American city with a population of more than
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50,000 people hosted at least one dance marathon during the Great Depression.
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As a business, it made a lot of money.
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In a time when jobs were scarce, the event itself employed quite a few people.
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There were food stalls, doctors, judges, hosts, cameramen.
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Many of the larger marathons aired on radio stations.
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The hosts would talk about couples who fell in love on the dance floor and others who broke up.
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Who knows how much of it was true?
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What is true is that contestants danced until they dropped.
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Literally, they'd need to be picked up off the floor.
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When the competition neared an end, the tension rose.
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The winning prize could be over $1,000, possibly more.
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It could change somebody's life.
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That's more than a lot of people could earn in a year at that time.
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So, what happened to the competitions?
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By the late 1930s, the marathons faded out.
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But for a while, they captured something real and raw about the time.
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Ordinary people were willing to push their bodies to the limit.
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And they were willing to do that for a chance at earning money.
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The country called it entertainment.
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In the end, dance marathons became one of the strangest events of the Great Depression.
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So what do you think?
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If you had lived during that time, would you have participated? Would you have watched?
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I find the whole thing...
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Well, on one hand, it's interesting to learn about.
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On the other hand, it's kind of sad.
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I mean quitting for so many people meant going back to poverty.
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They needed that food and that bed to rest in.
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So I don't know if I had lived right and we're using the third conditional here.
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If I had lived during that time and attended one of these events I might have found it entertaining in the beginning,
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when the dancers were full of energy,
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but I certainly wouldn't have been interested in seeing participants after a few days.
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I wouldn't have enjoyed seeing them in survival mode, falling apart in front of me.
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I find it disturbing.
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So, not for me.
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No thank you.
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that's my opinion.
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What about you?
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So that's the end of our story.
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Did you catch the 10 new irregular verbs?
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There were quite a few that we went over in previous irregular verb episodes, but let's see if you heard the new ones I've added.
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Try to guess the past tense before I say it.
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I'll leave a little space.
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Number one, to sing.
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To sing in the past is sang.
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Jazz bands played while contestants and audience members sang along to familiar songs.
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Let's do a few more examples.
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The choir sang loudly at church.
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The children sang loudly on the bus.
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Number two, to spin.
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To spin in the past is spun.
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Couples spun around the room while judges watched carefully from the sidelines.
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The little girl spun happily in her new dress The carnival ride spun faster and faster Number three,
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to fling To fling in the past is flung And to fling means to throw something with force Or kind of wildly
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After being eliminated, one contestant flung his shoes across the ballroom.
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She flung her backpack onto the chair after school.
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For no reason, my daughter flung the ball into the lake.
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Number four, to swing.
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To swing in the past is...
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Swung.
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Exhausted dancers swung each other across the dance floor.
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I swung my purse by my side as I walked.
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My daughter swung on the swings.
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Number five, to slide.
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To slide in the past is slid.
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Others slid across the floor in worn-out shoes that barely supported them anymore The glass slid off the counter and shattered
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He slid onto home plate during the baseball game Number six,
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to sleep The past tense of sleep is slept Some contestants were so exhausted they slept on their partner's shoulders.
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I slept for 10 hours after the long trip.
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My dog Milo slept peacefully beside the fireplace.
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Number seven, to shake.
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To shake in the past is shook.
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Some dancers shook their partners to wake them up He shook the bottle before opening it
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Her hands shook during the speech because she was nervous Number eight,
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to bleed The past tense of bleed is Bled Dancers' feet sometimes bled from hours of nonstop movement.
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After falling off his bike, his knee bled for several minutes.
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Her fingers bled after working in the garden without gloves.
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Number nine, to sneak.
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To sneak in the past is snuck.
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Some people even snuck out of their houses late at night to watch the dancers.
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The kids snuck cookies from the kitchen.
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He snuck into the room without making a sound.
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Number 10, to bet.
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The past tense of to bet is bet.
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It doesn't change.
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Spectators bet on which couple would last the longest.
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He bet $20 on the football game.
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She bet her friend that it would rain by Friday.
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All right, to get the full quiz and in-depth lesson on these irregular past tense forms, be sure to sign up to the Academy.
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The Academy is a place where you can talk to other English learners who are learning with my material.
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We have weekly calls to practice speaking, and it's a lot of fun.
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You can find the link to the Academy in the episode notes or also on the website at AmericanEnglishPodcast.com.
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Let's move on to the fun facts.
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So one of the most brutal parts of these dance competitions I mentioned, it's called the Derby.
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After dancing for days with almost no sleep,
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contestants suddenly had to sprint around the ballroom floor while crowds screamed.
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If they came in last, they could be eliminated.
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So yeah, imagine running laps after being awake for nearly a week.
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It's crazy.
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Many of the dancers collapsed immediately after the derbies.
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Fact number two, I mentioned how popular these dances were in the U.S.,
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but endurance dancing actually existed in other countries too.
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For example, there were contests in the UK, in Germany, France, and Australia.
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But the phenomenon was much bigger in the United States, especially during the Great Depression.
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Fact number three.
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I briefly touched on hosts dramatizing the event by sharing stories of participants falling in love on the dance floor
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and breaking up.
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Historians actually compare the marathons to early reality TV,
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where the spectators were watching real-life struggles.
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And sometimes the contestants really struggled.
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There's reports of some dancers hallucinating, others becoming delirious.
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In one famous case in 1928,
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a contestant reportedly punched his partner after what they called fatigue-induced psychosis.
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Fact number four.
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As dance marathons grew more extreme, many cities and states began banning them altogether.
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Seattle outlawed the competitions in 1928 after contestant Gladys Lenz attempted suicide following a 19-day marathon.
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Other cities soon followed, including Bellingham and Tacoma in Washington in 1931.
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But the thing is, whenever a city banned it, they just moved to another location.
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The dance marathon would be on the outskirts of town.
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So to make a real change, state laws would need to prohibit them.
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By 1935, roughly 24 U.S states had either banned dance marathons or placed major restrictions on them,
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like the length of time.
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So instead of enduring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 5 months,
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like Callum, who I mentioned before, they were only allowed to dance for 8 hours on end.
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Interestingly, concerns weren't just about health and exhaustion Churches,
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police departments, women's groups, and even movie theater owners Argued that the events were immoral and harmful to local businesses
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Other critics complained they were inhumane But once again, by the late 1930s, they were no longer common
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so yeah that's the end of this episode is dancing popular
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in the u.s i don't know i'd like to get your opinion on
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that be sure to post your thoughts in the comment section
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if you're listening on spotify i'd like to hear from you
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anyway i dance sometimes with my girls for fun sometimes i dance while I cook,
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especially if I'm making something that tastes pretty good.
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You got to dance a little bit when that happens.
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It's definitely not every day.
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What about you?
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How often do you dance?
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That's it for today's episode.
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I hope you enjoyed it.
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Be sure to sign up to the Academy if you're interested in diving deeper into these lessons.
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And of course, join the free 14-day Slang and Expression Challenge.
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You'll also find the link in the episode notes.
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Enjoy the rest of your day.
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Bye, guys.
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Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English Podcast.
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Remember, it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension, but to show you how to speak like someone from the States.
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If you want to receive the full transcript for this episode, or you just want to support this podcast,
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make sure to sign up to premium content on American English podcast.com.
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Thanks and hope to see you soon.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “218.2 - English Story: Irregular Verbs with Dance Marathons”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: dance, marathon, dancing, dancers, floor. This video has 284 sentences and 2956 words to shadow. The speech runs for 26:34. The speaker talks at a steady 111 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| marathon noun | /ˈmæɹəθən/ | A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race. |
| dancer noun | /ˈdænsəɹ/ | A person who dances, usually as a hobby, an occupation, or a profession. |
| contestant noun | /kənˈtɛstənt/ | A participant in a contest; specifically, a person who plays a game, as on a TV game show. |
| fling noun | /ˈflɪŋ/ | An act of throwing, often violently. |
| participant noun | /pɑːɹˈtɪsəpənt/ | One who participates. |
| bleed verb | /ˈbliːd/ | To shed blood through an injured blood vessel. |
| sneak verb | /sniːk/ | To creep or go stealthily; to come or go while trying to avoid detection, as a person who does not wish to be seen. |
| slide noun | /ˈslaɪ̯d/ | An item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again. |
| shake verb | /ˈʃeɪk/ | To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly. |
| tense noun | /tɛns/ | The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists. |
| stamina noun | /ˈstæmənə/ | The energy and strength for continuing to do something over a long period of time; power of sustained exertion, or resistance to hardship, illness etc. |
| ballroom noun | /ˈbɔːlɹuːm/ | A large room used for dancing and banquets. |
| irregular adjective | /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/ | Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| endurance noun | /ɪnˈdʊɹəns/ | The measure of a person's stamina or persistence. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| break up verb | To break or separate into pieces. |
| jump up verb | To move from one position to a higher position by one jump. |
| fall off verb | To become detached or to drop from. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'd watch, trying not to be creepy.
- Without any further ado, let's begin.
- If you had lived during that time, would you have participated?
- Would you have watched?
- How often do you dance?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were given · could be eliminated · were energized |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have learned · have participated · I've added |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 29 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'd, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shake /ˈʃeɪk/, shatter /ˈʃætɚ/, restriction /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/, obsession /əbˈsɛʃən/, admission /ədˈmɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: participant /pɑːɹˈtɪsəpənt/, irregular /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jə.lɚ/, eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/, historian /hɪˈstɔɹi.ən/, altogether /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like marathon, dancer, contestant.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.