Pigskin Revue feature Sing performance encores

Students perform in Pigskin on Friday at Waco Hall. Sing Alliance performed “Hip Hip Hooray!” at the event, which featured participants re-enacting a surprise birthday party.Meagan Downing | Lariat Photographer
Students perform in Pigskin on Friday at Waco Hall. Sing Alliance performed “Hip Hip Hooray!” at the event, which featured participants re-enacting a surprise birthday party.
Meagan Downing | Lariat Photographer
Pi Beta Phi’s performance of “Welcome to Your 80s, Ladies” received first place at last year’s competition and featured members of the sorority dressed as older women.
Meagan Downing | Lariat Photographer

By Rachel Ambelang
Staff Writer

Pigskin, one of Baylor’s most beloved traditions, presented four different opportunities for students and alumni to join in.

This homecoming, Waco Hall audience members were able to experience the top eight acts from last spring’s All-University Sing. Delta Delta Delta started the show with the number “Just Imagine It,” which earned the group third place in Sing. The performance began with a little girl wandering around the zoo wishing the animals could talk to her. Just as she begins to wonder what they would say, zebras, monkey, peacocks and lions all start to sing.

Members of Tri-Delta strived to maintain a high energy level even before the curtains came up. Audience members were barely able to hear Dr. Blaire Browning, the emcee for the night, over all of the screeching animal noises coming from onstage.

The women’s costumes were vibrant, allowing the audience to tell the difference between the different animal groups.

After the act ended, the curtains stayed up so the audience could see what normally happens when the performances are done. The teams have to break down their sets so that the next group can get ready to perform.

During Sing, teams must get all of their props off stage in less than two minutes or points are deducted from their overall score. Audience members were able to see groups of more than 50 people organized and working together to get the set cleared in a limited amount of time.

After Tri-Delta, Phi Kappa Chi and Chi Omega entered the stage together for their performance “Bonnie & Clyde.”

Their act opened with a bank teller begging the robbers not to hurt her. The group danced their way through the robbery before leaving the bank, with the actors portraying police close behind them.

The two groups played into the ’30s theme with costumes and their dance moves. At one point, the boys and girls partnered together and began swing dancing.

The next team to perform was Kappa Alpha Theta with the act “Golden Afternoon.” Their performance was based on the experiences a flower goes through in a garden, from getting too much sun to watching garden gnomes engaging in heroic acts.

A clever selection of songs told the flowers’ story. “Heat Wave” was the first song, when the flowers were getting too much sun, but rain fell just before it was too late and the flowers danced to “I’m So Excited.”

Their fun ended when the garden was invaded by evil weeds and all looked lost until pudgy blue gnomes came to the rescue and saved the precious flowers.

Sing Alliance was the next to take the stage, with the performance “Hip Hip Hooray!” The performance was supposed to model an extremely large surprise birthday party.

All of the performers were dressed as children. The boys wore blue cotton shorts with matching suspenders, their boyish look completed by the multicolored spin-top hat pinned to their heads. The girls’ costumes ranged from tutus to princess dresses, and all had bright bows wrapped in their hair.

The birthday girl celebrated by opening life-size presents that danced along with her friends. Piñatas even appeared and dared the group to take a swing as they danced to “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” The birthday girl ended the act by blowing out the candles on her cake.

Baton Rouge junior Claire Clinkingbeard was a part of this year’s Sing Alliance as a choreographer. She said planning for Pigskin takes place about six weeks before homecoming so the team can refresh their memories on the dance and teach new members the choreography.

Clinkingbeard, who also performs with Sing Alliance, said there is a big difference in the atmosphere of Pigskin compared to Sing.

“You don’t have to rush as much. You get to enjoy it more,” Clinkingbeard said.

While participants noted the amount of time and effort needed to participate in Sing and Pigskin, most said they enjoy participating in the event, especially when the performances go well. Clinkingbeard was definitely pleased with Sing Alliance’s performances.

“I was very proud of my team. I thought they did a great job,” Clinkingbeard said.

After a short intermission, Kappa Omega Tau took the stage with “The Show Must Go On,” their version of a day at the circus, which earned them second place in last year’s Sing competition. This circus featured clowns, a strong man and acrobats.

Kappa Omega made use of special effects, including one segment where their performance used dark lights to make some of the dancers look like they were floating. At the end, another effect was used to make it seem like the ringleader appeared from both sides of the stage simultaneously.

“That was really creepy, but I liked it,” San Marcos junior Whitney Williams said

A performance from Kappa Kappa Gamma, was the next stage, titled, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”

The performance began with a group of Little Red Riding Hoods headed off to grandma’s house together, completely unaware of the well-dressed wolves lurking in the background. The wolves came out of the fog to scare the girls and the three little pigs during their brief cameo appearance, only to go back into the forest to wait for them to get to grandma’s house.

“A Case of the Mondays,” from Alpha Tau Omega, was the next act. This group of men started out in a set of cubicles. After first panicking when they hear Betty, their boss, come over the loudspeaker, they rejoice when she tells them that she will be gone for five minutes.

During their break the men sang their version of “Hard Knock Life,” which was adapted to focus on office life.

The fun quickly ends when Betty comes back to fire one of their co-workers, but this time, the men fight back and tie Betty to a chair, hanging a sign that reads “Under New Management.”

The final performance of the night was the first place group from Sing, Pi Beta Phi. Their performance was titled “Welcome to Your 80s, Ladies.”

The theme of the act was growing old and the changes that come with the later stages in life. The women portrayed older women, engaging different activities that take place in a nursing home, such as playing with extremely large cards and Bingo.

The group even choreographed a dance that used walkers as stands that the girls could dance on top of and around. After the dance was over, the group shifted to acting old again, grabbing their aching backs and grimacing.

Brett Harper, a visitor from Mary-Hardin Baylor Nursing School who had never seen Pigskin or Sing before, said he was very impressed with show.

“It was like Broadway,” she said. “I just can’t believe that the groups do that all by themselves. It looks like fun, but I’m sure it’s a lot of work.”