The Panhellenic, National Pan-Hellenic and Interfraternity Councils at Elon University competed in various events for the annual Greek Week philanthropy competition, including canned food drives and board game nights. But the highly anticipated Greek Week Dance has always been the biggest event, with dancers practicing multiple times a week for hours on end to perfect their moves.

“It’s really a week of bringing them all together through competition, like tug of war or fun barbecue things, and then there is obviously Greek Week Dance, which is a huge competition that brings all of Greek Life together,” said senior Rachel Ingersoll, who choreographed Alpha Chi Omega’s dance. 

Each dance was choreographed with a different theme in mind. PHC organizations had many elaborate themes, such as Alpha Omicron Pi’s “Clique,” Kappa Delta’s “The ‘90s,” Alpha Xi Delta’s “Nightmare,” Sigma Sigma Sigma’s “Sigma,” Delta Delta Delta’s “Bittersweet Symphony” and Alpha Chi Omega’s “Straight Outta Compton” theme.

The winning sorority for this year’s Greek Week dance competition was Sigma Kappa, followed by Zeta Tau Alpha’s baseball theme in second place and Phi Mu’s James Bond-inspired piece in third place. 

Sigma Kappa’s theme was “American Horror Story Freakshow.” Each dancer wore pleather black tops with patterned leggings — one-half solid black, the other black-and-white checkered squares — and the crowd was cheering non-stop.

“It feels amazing to win. We worked so hard and we had some great heads who were helping us,” said sophomore Kiley Shannon, a member of Sigma Kappa. “It was honestly just amazing. It was like a dream.” 

Sigma Kappa’s dance was broken up into 11 song segments. According to senior Rachel Zain, who choreographed the dance, each song segment took her 30-45 minutes to create, spending about eight or nine hours total just creating the dance, not including the time that it took to create the music mix and the costume designs. 

The winning fraternity was Sigma Chi, followed by newly formed Beta Theta Pi’s “Oscar” theme in second place and last year’s winner Delta Upsilon in third place. 

Sigma Chi’s theme was the “Jabberwockies.” They were all dressed in black, wearing white masks and black hats as they danced to an EDM rendition of a phone ringtone.

“How does it feel to win?” said freshman Nicholas Disa, a member of Sigma Chi. “It feels like I need to win every single year of the rest of my life, and come back to Elon after I graduate and win again.”

Most sororities have been practicing their dance since February, usually meeting two or three times a week and working for long hours each practice.

“We began practicing the second week of spring semester. Each week we had three two-hour practices amounting to over 45 hours in total,” said senior Nicole Barletta, who choreographed Phi Mu’s dance. 

Besides the hours put in during the rehearsals, some members still needed to practice or have individual sessions outside of practice to master the dance.

“I know some people who thought that they needed help even met with me outside regular practices,” Ingersoll said. “It was just cool to be able to work with all of those people and be able to see the transformations and how hard everyone worked, especially since they are non-dancers.”

Planning for these dances extends beyond the costumes, makeup and themes that culminate in the Greek Week Dance competition. Choreographers usually begin their planning in the fall so the dancers can jump into rehearsals shortly after Bid Day and the beginning of the spring semester. 

“It’s hard to quantify the amount of time specifically, but I have been planning for it since around this time last year,” Barletta said. “Throughout the fall and Winter Term, I worked on finding inspiration and creating the mix, so by the start of the second semester, we were able to practice right away. I could be found doodling formations and scribbling down ideas all the time.”

Though some of the choreographers were dance majors or minors, they needed to create a dance for non-dancers that was still impressive to watch.

“I’m a dance major, and I’ve always loved big groups of dancers that don’t think that they can dance, and showing them that they really can dance,” Zain said. “I think they really crushed it. I’ve helped choreograph it every year since I was a sophomore so it’s fun being the head and it was really exciting — for my senior year — to win the last one.”

The hard work paid off and victory was sweet for those who placed. 

“Performing had never felt so good,” Barletta said. “I was beyond excited to share my creation with the Elon community. Our dancers worked so hard. I couldn’t be more proud of what we did. To place was a dream come true. It was an honor to be recognized for all our hard work and dedication.”

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