The crowd at Gampel Pavilion felt electric Thursday night at the annual Homecoming Lip Sync competition.
The good mood was infectious as the emcees kicked it off, with several UConn student organizations gathered to compete. Many groups on campus brought well prepared and well choreographed dance and lip-synch numbers to impress the judges, and demonstrate their originality, professionalism and, above all, inimitable lip-synch skills.
And while the effort behind every performance was evident, there were a few award-winning performances that stood out to the audience, and to the judges as well.
Taking home the top prize in the non-fee-funded group category was the UConn Irish Dance Team. These magnificent dancers told the story of new UConn transfer student, Ke$ha, and her quest – to rescue Jonathan the Husky, who the UCF fans were holding captive.
This performance was unique in that it (unsurprisingly) featured Irish Dance. These dancers were at a different skill level than most of the other groups, and the intricate footwork impressed the crowd. The climax of the performance came during the dance battle between the knights of UCF and the huskies of UConn, and the eventual rescue of Jonathan.
First in the Cultural Center category was the UConn Marching Band, the Tau Beta Sigma sorority, and the Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity.
These band enthusiasts struggled to bring Katy Perry to Rentschler Field to make sure she was there on time to perform the halftime show. The gang finally made it after a quick detour to the moon due to endless UConn construction and a brief encounter with Perry’s archrival, Taylor Swift.
Complete with references to the infamous “left shark” and impressive glow in the dark firework posters, this performance oozed Katy Perry, and was extremely well done.
Pi Beta Phi, Phi Gamma Delta and Beta Theta Pi clinched the top spot in the Greek Life category. Their story focused on freshman Miley Cyrus’s first year experience at UConn, her first choice college. Miley had to band together with her friends Lilly and Oliver, and her new crush Liam to find Jonathan after he was kidnapped by the UCF Knights.
This performance was chock full of vintage Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana references, and featured some impressive and well rehearsed choreography.
The most impressive, perhaps, was when the dancers were able to arrange themselves in the shape a wrecking ball, with one girl playing Miley riding on their shoulders. This routine exemplified the main goal of the competition, which was to incorporate this year’s homecoming theme: “Music tours through Storrs.”
However, the competition was stiff, and all the groups performed well. Third-semester English major Carly Bria “liked the Biggie Smalls performance the best,” but admitted that she’s a little biased because “[her] roommate is in Gamma Phi.” This performance was well done, and featured the music of many others, including Jennifer Lopez and Kanye West.
Each group delivered rehearsed and funny performances, and the entire event exemplified the spirit of homecoming. “I’ll definitely be back next year,” concluded first-semester biology major Kristen Au, who especially liked the “dancing clown in the Nicki Minaj performance and the jokes about Bob Diaco.”
The emcees concluded by also announcing the winners of the banner contest.
The UConn Marching Band, the Tau Beta Sigma sorority, and the Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity won with their Katy Perry banner in the cultural center competition, the Irish Dance Team won with their Ke$ha banner the non-fee-funded category and Delta Gamma, Kappa Sigma and Phi Sigma Rho won the Greek Life category with their Christina Aguilera banner.
Katherine O’Shea is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at katherine.o’shea@uconn.edu. She tweets at @koshea527
