Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci will visit the Palmer-Dixon Tennis Courts this afternoon to kickoff the Currier House 12-Hour Dance Marathon, the culmination of a six-month planning effort to raise money for a North Cambridge housing project.

More than 200 hearty dancers have signed up to participate in Harvard's first House sponsored marathon. The pledges that dancers will collect for their efforts will go to the Jefferson Park Housing Project.

Alan Khazei '83, Currier House Committee chairman, said the idea of the marathon grew from interest in the House to find a public service project in Cambridge. "We hoped that the idea of a dance marathon would entice people" to learn about the need for public service.

"We wanted to have a dance marathon both to raise money and to raise public awareness," Khazei said. "We wanted to show that Harvard can make the difference on a House-based effort," he added.

While the idea for the marathon came up nearly one year ago, intensive planning for the half-day event did not begin until last fall when the marathon committee split into two groups one to find a community project and another to organize the marathon.

The dancer who brings in the most money, regardless of the number of sponsors, will win a grand prize of an Apple II computer. Other prizes include a JVC tape deck and a roundtrip to any city serviced by Eastern Airlines.

Khazei said that, of the 200 contestants registered, many are unwilling to reveal the total amount of pledges they have received. "There has developed a kind of competition between the dancers to amass the most amount of money. They're going for that computer."

One Currier House resident, Rosalind Chen '84, while hesitant to say exactly how much she had accumulated, said her total was nearing $700. While she only started collecting Monday, Chen said she has almost 200 people sponsoring her. "I even have people calling me up now, asking if they can sponsor me," she added.

Mather House Senior Tutors Kenneth and Jolene Hodder, are rumored to have collected over $1000 worth of pledges. However, Jolene Hodder declined to offer an estimate of their anticipated earnings.

Three Harvard bands, "Off the Kuff," "Commissioner Gordon," and "Love Monsters" will play at the marathon, which begins at 1 p.m. and ends at 1 a.m.

Khazei said he hopes students attending the hockey game against Yale will come to the dance, which opens up after 9 p.m., "to celebrate their victory and turn this into the biggest dance Harvard has ever seen."