Greek Week 2012 came to an end last week as sororities and fraternities competed in the last two traditional events: Greek Stroll and Greek Sing.
Thursday morning, students gathered around the free speech amphitheater to watch Stroll. Greek Stroll is a competition in which National Panhellenic Council, Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council and Collegiate Panhellenic Council chapters team up to perform a synchronized dance.
“Stroll was a great experience because I had never danced before. I learned a lot of dance moves while meeting and becoming comfortable with really cool guys,” said Taylor Willoughby, a first-year ME major.
Stroll was judged by adding up scores for different categories based on a zero to ten scale. These categories were audience appeal, costumes, difficulty of dance, music selection, synchronization, creativity/originality and overall performance. Each of these categories was given a different weight depending on importance.
“We collaborated with two different sororities. Working through problems with choreography with my sisters and girls I barely knew was a challenge that we openly accepted,” said Rachel True, a second-year BME major.
Alpha Chi Omega and Alpha Kappa Alpha won the sorority category with their well-choreographed performance while fraternities Delta Sigma Phi and Theta Chi won thanks to a highly energetic performance. Each team received eight Greek Week points for their chapters.
Thursday night Greek Sing, a ten-minute song and dance performance, was held in the Ferst Theater. Members of the Greek community filled the seats to see the five sororities and four fraternities that made it through the preliminary round to perform in the finals.
“Greek chapters take Greek Week, and therefore Greek Sing, very seriously. Many times [Greek Sing] determines the overall winners of Greek Sing by fractions of a point,” said Nathan O’Connor, Greek Sing chair and a fourth-year ISYE major.
“I did most of the choreographing and script writing for my chapter. I’m always closest to the girls I do Greek Sing with because we spend so much time together and it’s a bonding experience to watch each other improve so much,” said Jasmine Bennett, 4th year ME and BA major.
The groups were judged by audience appeal, vocal abilities, dance difficulty, appearance, creativity and overall performance.
“An intangible that I believe affects the judges more than anything is audience appeal. Even if a judge may not get a joke, if the audience reacts in such a way that the judges fail to notice, then that act is certainly going to get a higher score,” O’Connor said.
Greek Sing acts usually begin practicing in January or February in order to pass the preliminary round in early March.
“Six acts had to be cut during the preliminary round. It is very competitive every year, but this year must have been exceptionally challenging for the judges to pick a winner,” O’Connor said.
Alpha Chi Omega placed first amongst sororities, with Alpha Gamma Delta and Alpha Xi Delta closely following.
Delta Sigma Phi won the fraternity category, with Tau Kappa Epsilon in second and Theta Xi in third.
“I love performing in general, but it’s different performing in front of the whole Greek community. This is a community that I’ve grown up with for the past four years and I love seeing everyone come together for Greek Week because it shows how tight we are and how much we care about each other,” Bennett said.