If you’re in college and have never attended a dance competition hosted by a sorority, then you’re missing out.
For Greek life at UCF, Kappa Delta has the privilege of hosting what is known as the KD Shakedown every spring to raise money for their philanthropy, Prevent Child Abuse America. It’s not just Shakedown — throughout the semester, the Epsilon Omicron chapter works to raise money with smaller events all culminating in the finale, which is usually held in the first or second week of April. This year, it was held on April 8. Anyone can attend. If you buy your tickets in advance, they are $10; however, the price increases to $15 at the door. The theme this year was “Live from New York.”
All of the notable frats and sororities participate in the semester-long process, showing up and showing out at events, and, if they are performing, working to master the dances that are performed on Shakedown Day. People don’t just show up for the dancing — they show up to support an organization that they believe has a worthy message and a great cause.
So, what is Prevent Child Abuse America?
I didn’t know much about Prevent Child Abuse America before I decided to cover this event, so I went straight to the source to learn more about what KD at UCF stands for.
PCAA is a nationwide organization that strives to provide a way for children to have a better experience growing up and a better support system for parents who may need it. There are 45 state chapters, and over 300,000 people are impacted annually by the work the organization does.
I think that everyone deserves help to be equalized and to have equal opportunity to achieve, especially children that are completely innocent and parents that are doing everything that they can just to put food on the table. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out completely fair, but ultimately changing the lives of just a few kids has a ripple effect.
Kaylee Seamann, a KD member
Each active chapter of KD across the nation claims a local organization as well as PCAA, and for UCF, it is the Children’s Home Society. There are five different locations across central Florida, all of which KD has visited. In fact, this was the first year they were able to do so, seeing the benefits of all their good work firsthand.
Each Children’s Home Society campus has everything a struggling family needs to better equip their children for success, such as free dental cleanings, access to therapy, and a shuttle bus to transport kids to and from campus, so their parents don’t have to miss work.
A week before Shakedown, I was lucky enough to be able to speak with Nyana Singh and Kaylee Seamann, the masterminds behind this year’s show.
“Anything for these charities is more than they would have had already,” Singh said. “We, within our chapter, are so proud of what we do, and we want to share it with everyone.” The two are close friends and have been working together, with the support of their chapter, to plan this event since the start of the semester.
“We want to see everyone involved, we want it to go beyond Greek life, and we want it to be a whole community effort because I think what’s most important is making an impact on our greater community, and that’s the end goal every single year,” Seamann said.
Eighty percent of the funds raised go to the Children’s Home Society, and twenty percent goes to PCAA.
the show
For me, at first, it was quite intimidating walking into the Addition Financial Arena alone since I had never been to an event like this before and did not know what to expect.
As soon as I entered, I was greeted by a line of Kappa Deltas as I walked up the stairs to my seat. The girls who weren’t dancing were wearing black dresses with blue ribbons pinned on and handed everyone, participant or not, blue beads so they could be recognized for their support of the organization.
The show started at 7:10 with KD doing their chant, which, of course, grabbed everyone’s attention. As soon as it was over, Chapter President Anna Woody announced that the show was about to start and offered her thanks to the attendees.
Members of the Children’s Home Society came up to speak as well, along with the leader of the Brooke Strong Foundation, which was founded by the family of KD, who unfortunately lost her life in a car accident in 2014.
As soon as the formalities concluded, the fun began with a roll call. Every participating organization, whether or not they were competing, was honored by cheering as the MCs, Singh and Seamann, called their names.
Besides the sororities and fraternities who were competing, five RSOs also brought dances to the floor, most notably the now national-winning UCF dance team, who performed at KD Shakedown for the first time.
“We’ve never thought about scaling it down. We want to go bigger and bigger.”
Nyana Singh, a KD member
KD opened with a hip-hop medley that tore the house down, including the infamous Sabrina Carpenter line, “I’m on SNL and you’re not,” and dropped dead as they finished.
The funniest moment of the night for me was when Theta Chi threw up the KD sign and said, “KD, what’s up with you?” in the middle of their performance (and I know a lot of people agree).
Every dance was incredible to watch, as someone who has been immersed in the arts for years. Beta, Kappa Sigma, and, of course, Theta Chi were among the crowd-favorite fraternities, channeling the best of Kodak Black, The Weeknd, and Glorilla.
The sororities were on another level: Delta Zeta’s Tyler, The Creator routine was quite impressive, Pi Phi’s channeling of Beyonce was truly iconic and Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Kendrick Lamar routine was showstopping, featuring the hit songs such as “Not Like Us,” “squabble up,” “tv off,” and they even threw “luther” in there, which was something I never would have seen coming in a hip-hop combo in a million years.
The winners
Alas, all good things have to come to an end. After the UCF dance team’s performance, the judges began tallying their points, and the winners were announced.
Theta Chi won the Mr. Shakedown competition, which comes as no surprise to me, considering the performance they put on.
For the fraternities who won in dance, third place went to Tau Epsilon Phi’s Sean Kingston combo, second place went to Zeta Beta Tau’s Britney Spears moment, and first place went to, you guessed it, Theta Chi.
For the sororities who won in dance, third place went to Zeta Tau Alpha’s Justin Timberlake dance, second place went to Alpha Epsilon Phi’s Lil Wayne piece, and first place went to Alpha Delta Pi for their Missy Elliot moment.
In terms of the winners who brought in the most participation throughout the semester and contributed the most to the final tally, for sororities, third place went to Delta Delta Delta, second place to Zeta Tau Alpha, and first place to Alpha Epsilon Phi. For the fraternities, Delta Tau Delta was third, Kappa Sigma was second, and Zeta Beta Tau was first.
The event managed to successfully surpass KD’s $100,000 goal by $57,000, raising a total of $157,951. This is only $4,000 shy of breaking their previous record of $161,000.
Truly, this event was one for the books for the lovely ladies of Kappa Delta. Congratulations on another successful KD Shakedown, and I can’t wait to see what you do next year!