By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
Every year, student organizations compete for a spot in the top eight acts of All-University Sing in hopes of making it to Pigskin Revue in the fall. The preparation is extensive, and the themes are priceless, but certain aspects of the performances set the best ones apart from the rest.
In 2023, Chi Omega and Alpha Tau Omega collaborated to take home the No. 1 spot with “A Day at the Derby.” Coppell junior and Chi Omega president Tallulah Rushton said she feels a combination of things helped them clinch first place.
“I think that something that separates the top eight acts is how everything came together,” Rushton said. “Because I think if you just had great choreography, but your costumes weren’t there, then you wouldn’t have made it — and likewise, if your costumes were incredible, but choreography maybe wasn’t the cleanest.”
According to the Sing website, performers, Sing chairs and student producers engage in co-curricular experiences like leadership development, communication strategies, organizational administration and time and budget management.
“I do think that unity of mind is really good, because if a group is on different pages about whether they want to win or just want to play or just want to make Pigskin, then it kind of changes the course of how that is going to play out,” Rushton said.
Bentonville, Ark., senior and Alpha Tau Omega Sing chair Will Deal said one of the biggest roadblocks was trying to get a group of 200 people to work together and stay motivated toward a goal.
“When you think about how we’ve got 200 people, how [are we] going to keep all 200 of these people in line with one another and motivated, keep them going to all the practices, keep them excited as well as find different ways to push them?” Deal said.
Deal said lots of thought went into keeping morale up during rehearsals.
“Incorporating both [Chi Omega and Alpha Tau Omega’s] traditions was able to almost bring more unity, which helped us be on the same page about an act and bringing it together,” Rushton said. “I think it also boosted a lot of morale, and our morale was so high because we were having fun.”
While the group set out to have fun and enjoy the production process, Rushton said they were also very serious about moving toward their goal.
“We definitely had a goal in mind to win, and so even just making it to Pigskin was also one of our top goals,” Rushton said. “And so our members were unified and made that goal happen and just saw a lot of dedication and performance through it all.”
Chi Omega and Alpha Tau Omega’s No. 1 spot at Sing was attributed to endless hours of preparation.
“It’s crazy, the amount of hours that go into just preparing before the rehearsals,” Deal said. “It’s countless hours, especially as things kind of go on and you take different steps. Even if you have an extra large team, that sometimes adds more preparation time.”
Deal said the dedication ultimately paid off for the group when they realized their progress and developed new friendships.
“It was great to get super close with the Chi Os, and the way that everyone kind of became friends by the end of it was super awesome,” Deal said. “We had such a strong vision for doing our absolute best and pushing ourselves to kind of go out there and put on the best show that we could, because we knew that we both had some really talented groups.”
