Dance Dance Dance
I feel like all I’ve been doing lately is dancing. Between Dance Marathon Morale Committee, Pi Phi Ever After, and of course showing my moves at the frats, I’ve been getting in cardio in the most fun way ever. I was a cheerleader in high school, and my favorite part was always doing the half-time dances. But it can be exhausting! Let me explain a little bit about each of my current dancing involvements.
Dance Marathon is one of the best philanthropic organizations on campus, hands down. And one of the most popular for sure! Basically, students fundraise all year leading up to a 13.1 hour-long event, modeled after a half marathon. The big event includes dancing, costumes, magicians, balloon animals, crafts, and more. Not to mention, the miracle kids and their families will be there! You see, the most important part of Dance Marathon, and where all the culminated money goes, is the Monroe Carell Jr. Hospital. In 2015, we raised $161,923 and this year our goal is to break $200,000. The money we donate this year will go directly to the children’s hospital’s “Growing to New Heights Expansion” project which aims to double the size of it now, resulting in more patients being able to get the help they need. Thinking about our impact as a whole is amazing, but being able to meet and interact with some of the families at the event is indescribable.
So, where does dancing come in? I’m a member of the Morale Committee for VUDM (Vanderbilt University’s Dance Marathon). What this means is it’s my job (along with the others, there are about 20 of us) to keep participants’ spirits up over the incredibly long duration of the event. It’s hard to maintain spirit for 13.1 hours! However, we’ve been selected as the most enthusiastic, dedicated group to deck out in hilarious costumes, to run around making people laugh (and forget how tired they are), and lastly, to dance. We perform a dance every hour on the hour, adding a bit to the routine each time. So, it starts out pretty short but by the end will be about 10 minutes long. A 10-minute long dance?! You must think I’m kidding. I’m not. We’ve learned about 3 minutes so far, and I’m sweating just at the thought of practicing, it is honestly some of the most fun I’ve ever had. We have rehearsals once a week, and I look forward to it each time! Not only is it a great workout (hello endorphins!), but it’s truly an incredible group of people with such positive energies; people I’m lucky enough to spend time with. I’ll be sure to post after the event on its success (and on how much of me has survived after the last and longest dance), but I seriously can’t wait!
Pi Phi Ever After, the other event I mentioned, is coming up much sooner. While Dance Marathon is on the far away date of February 20, Pi Phi Ever After is approaching fast-October 27! Pi Beta Phi is my sorority, and Pi Phi Ever After is our philanthropy event. Each sorority holds an event in the fall in order to raise money for their philanthropy as well as a chance to introduce PNMs (Potential New Members) to our philanthropy. [*for more information on philanthropy, PMMs and other Greek lingo, please see Sami’s awesome blog all on Greek life-she nailed it!] Our philanthropy is called “Read, Lead, Achieve” and is focused on literacy. Our event is inspired by books as a result. Since the philanthropy events are educational as well as fun and entertaining, we’ll have food and drinks and, regrettably, dancing. I say regrettably because although I love to dance and am currently involved in many organizations requiring me to dance, I’m not very good at it. And therefore I don’t think that anyone we want to think our sorority is cool should see me dance. However, I love music and therefore found myself creating the mix for our dance. I then found myself choreographing it. I tend to find myself in these situations a lot…I can’t help but get involved! Everything is too fun and I want it to be done well! Anyway, the theme of my group’s dance is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We’ve got a remix including actual dialogue from the movie, Aaron Carter’s “I Want Candy”, Maroon 5’s “Sugar”, Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” and more! It’s been fun teaching my friends the moves and getting our costumes together. We’ll see how it turns out!
I don’t feel the need to expand on my dancing at frat parties. The other two are way more impressive, trust me.