By Katy Mae Turner | Photographer
Now in its 70th year, All-University Sing is a longstanding Baylor tradition beloved by students, alumni, faculty, staff, families and anyone who loves an entertaining show. Hundreds of students come together after weeks of preparation to showcase unique acts every year featuring elaborate sets, costumes, choreography and vocal medleys. For those performing in Sing, it is a lot of hard work and late nights. After spending hours perfecting a dance, it’s easy to get sick of the number. Once the first few weeks of the spring semester are gone, so is Sing.
It’s something not only unique to the college experience, but unique to the Baylor experience. It’s easy to fall into the mentality that the tradition is something we have to do, but let’s not forget it’s something we get to do.
Each act’s dedicated Sing chairs spend months coming up with the ideas and balancing creativity with Sing’s guidelines. Groups are judged on entertainment value, musical quality, creativity, choreography and theme development, which means a lot of time has to go into these acts. Successful performances have been worked on for almost a year in advance just to go by in seven minutes.
While many of the organizations performing are fraternities and sororities, there is a place for everyone in creating this magical event. There are plenty of ways to be involved, like working backstage at Waco Hall, being a producer with Student Productions, playing with the pit orchestra or singing and dancing onstage with
Sing Alliance.
Even if you’re just watching the show, your job is just as important. This year, 13,000 people will come and cheer on the performers to create an electric environment in Waco Hall.
While Sing is a spring tradition, it carries over into the fall for Homecoming and Pigskin. This is also a great tradition, but the weeks leading up to Sing bring suspense, wondering what other organizations’ themes are. The opening night performance is the big reveal, and it’s exciting to see what your friends have spent so much time working on.
No matter if you love or hate Sing, you can’t deny there’s something magical about hundreds of students coming together to create elaborate performances to entertain thousands. Sing isn’t just about performing; it’s about the experience of coming together as a community.
