By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
This year, Tau Kappa Epsilon is competing in its first All-University Sing since 1976.
For New Milford, Conn., senior and TKE Sing chair Anthony Izzo, being part of Sing is something exciting that members are ready to participate in and learn from as they embark on a new journey for the chapter.
In the past, TKE didn’t have enough members to compete in Sing and felt unequipped to handle such a large production. Since the growth of the chapter in recent years, Izzo said members voted on whether to participate this year and were overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
“We have crazy good energy,” Izzo said. “Everyone’s just really excited to do it. I definitely am really happy to be there, so it was just the influence of wanting to do it and then being big enough to do it.”
Izzo attributed most of the TKE’s energetic approach to not having been a part of the event since its first and only performance 48 years ago, which revolved around the theme “Celebrate Today.”
According to the 1976 Baylor Roundup Yearbook, “the performance included an abstract background with multicolored lights and an overhead sign that descended and included the words ‘Celebrate Today.'”
In the act, TKE had three soloists and performed the song “Celebrate” by Three Dog Night. However, the act wasn’t well received, and the chapter didn’t participate in Sing afterward.
1980 Baylor graduate and TKE alumnus Lee Fuqua recalled what Sing was like before the chapter took a hiatus.
“We were the very first club to rent and hire a backdrop — for an opera or musical or something like that — out of New York,” Fuqua said. “This backdrop came in this big giant roll that was like 50 feet, and we unrolled it and pulled it up and hung it up behind us.”
Fuqua said TKE worked multiple nights a week in order to put the act together.
“We would practice three or four nights a week, and we would start off with first move and then second move and then third move,” Fuqua said. “Then we start adding the music to it, and the choreographer gal would help us get it down, and we had lots of people who could dance.”
Aside from the excitement for performances, Izzo said today’s group is finding a sense of community and joy in the production and rehearsal process.
“I think that’s something new that we’d never done, so I think the excitement of not knowing what we’re doing and figuring it out and learning as we go, that’s been an exciting part for me,” Izzo said.
Izzo is working alongside Denver senior and student producer Trinity Fay to help bring his vision to life.
“He had this awesome theme idea, and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, you have to do that,’ because it’s such a cute theme,” Fay said. “And so, here we are.”
Fay said working with TKE has been an “exciting challenge” since the group is new to the Sing process. In 2022, Fay worked with Kappa Omega Tau on its winning act, and in 2023, she worked with Sigma Chi and Kappa Omega Tau on their Pigskin Revue-placing acts. This year, Fay is also working with Kappa Alpha on its first-ever Sing act.
“I’ve worked with groups that kind of have the same curriculum down, where they know exactly how to choreograph and know exactly where they’re going to practice,” Fay said. “But I really loved working with TKE this year because it’s just been an exciting challenge and adventure, if you will.”
Izzo and Fay have been working to choreograph the routines and teach them to the rest of the group at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Waco.
St Louis, Mo., junior and TKE member Nick Imo said the group expects the extensive time spent in rehearsals to pay off in its performance.
“I think it’s going to shock people, because I don’t think people are prepared,” Imo said. “I mean, it’s our first performance, and usually in the past, the first one can be very rough, maybe a little bit rocky, but we’re really giving it our all.”
