What better way to have school spirit than participate in a school dance competition? My friends and I decided to join Walk Like A Sigma, and it was an experience of a lifetime.
Practices started off in November, and extended to January 24th. To start off, we started learning the common strols like “Knuck If You Buck” and “Dreams and Nightmares,” (my personal favorite). The logistics of everything was simple, but adding a little flare to it was important. Now, when you’re not a dancer like myself, it can be quite difficult to catch on. On my end, it required more work and practices on the side by myself to make everything look tough.
Figuring out a theme was a HEADACHE. From the very first meeting we discussed various themes, including baseball, schoolgirls, Hot Girls, etc. We initially agreed on Alice in Sigmaland (corny I know), but later found out that it was a theme from the previous year. And in all honesty, we didn’t fully commit to a theme until after Christmas break leaving us with only two weeks to figure it out. The theme we ultimately decided was, drum roll please… Super Mario Bros. Not only was it unique, but colorful and allowed us to have a storyline.
My team consisted of eight lovely ladies of whom I appreciate very dearly: Vashti, Daijah, Cheri, Payton, Sydney, Erin, and Olivia. My captains were Uche and Anthony, but were not limited to fellow Sigmas and Zetas also helping us out time to time. Despite our close dynamic, we all bumped heads at certain points. Mostly on different things like people arriving to practice late, not showing up which caused a major setback on our end, or specific dances. I’m not the best dancer, and I understand my limits, but others may not. So having that conversation and making sure we’re all on the same page.
Now practices were easy in the beginning because we had all the time in the world. But as we kept on adding new dances and perfecting everything, we soon came into crunch time. The week of the performance was absolutely exhausting. I had never been so worked out in my life, and sleep felt like a luxury.
The day of the performance, my anxiety was on an all-time high. This wasn’t my first time performing in front of a crowd, but at Hampton it’s a different story. One fall or big fluke, everyone will talk about it for days. We all convened at our coach’s house to turn up. We played some music to get the blood flowing and water to stay hydrated ;). Now, we were always a goofy bunch so our speech beforehand just consisted of us yelling and saying “LET’S GO!” Not the best speech, but it worked for us.
The performance itself went by quicker than I anticipated. I recall the very beginning of putting on my hat, and the end where we’re on the floor twerking. The audience was very loud cheering us on. As soon as we started, it ended. All that hard work was finally put to use.
This is an experience I would definitely recommend to anyone. If you’re looking for a great way to connect with other people, this is perfect. Also, an opportunity to get a nice workout in.