Last night, the Ford Center was lit up for the 15th annual Theta Encore, a dance competition between each sorority’s new pledge classes. This year, the overall winners were Delta Gamma in first place, Kappa Delta in second place and Phi Mu in third.
“I honestly had no idea what I was getting into with Theta Encore, and it has been a blast learning these dances, meeting new friends and performing in front of hundreds of people covered in glitter,” said Sydney Sergis, a Phi Mu participant.
Theta Encore is Kappa Alpha Theta’s philanthropy event benefiting CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and the Scarlet Akins Foundation. CASA is a non-profit that dedicates their time to children going through the foster system. Every year the dance competition gets sold out, which is 1400 tickets, said Courtney Borserine, Theta’s chief marking officer.
“My favorite part of Theta Encore was meeting new friends that are in my dance,” said Emily McFatridge, Kappa Gamma participant. “I met some really cool girls who I wouldn’t have previously, and we’ve all worked so hard over the past month to make it good. I was most excited about putting it all out on stage and watching the reaction of the crowd.”
The week before the competition, Theta held a blood drive where they collected 840 units of blood, which will save approximately 2,540 lives.
The judges score each dance on theme, music, costume and dance, also playing into the overall winner is a sign competition and the blood drive winners.
Each sorority put in countless hours of preparation for this event building camaraderie between each new pledge class.
“We ease the girls into a practice schedule, but by the end, we are practicing about four or five times a week,” said Dominique Dairion, an Alpha Omicron Pi Theta Encore coach.
By Emily Jameson, a student of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She can be reached at eajameso@go.olemiss.edu.