Story by Abigail Vickers
Photos by Ella Oakley
WKU’s first annual Spring Sing in 1965 “paved the way” for WKU’s first official “Greek Week” in 1966, according to the May 6, 1965, issue of the College Heights Herald newspaper.
Now, over 60 years later, Spring Sing remains a prominent part of Greek Week on WKU’s campus. This year’s Spring Sing theme was “Greekflix,” and senior Hilltoppers worked hard all semester coaching and bonding with their Spring Sing teams.
The crowd waited in anticipation during the first act of Spring Sing as the Sigma Kappas rolled out the blue-sky backdrop from the movie “The Truman Show.”
Darcy Mraz, a senior dance and political science double major, said she was the head coach for Sigma Kappa at Spring Sing this year.
Mraz said she has been in Spring Sing all four years of her time at WKU. She said she was the co-coach her sophomore year and has been a head coach for her junior and senior years.
She said the team chose to choreograph their dance around the plot of “The Truman Show” for Greekflix. She said it took a lot of time planning and choreographing their dance around this theme.
Each team has to write a script and figure out how to fit the movie into a five-minute song and dance routine. Mraz said ever since Sigma Kappa started practicing for Spring Sing, she has probably watched “The Truman Show” four or five times now.
“It took awhile but I’m really proud of it,” Mraz said. “It’s very creative.”
Mraz said Sigma Kappa actually started practicing for Spring Sing before the theme was released in early February. She said the team practiced four days a week from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Mraz also said that not all the songs used in the performance are part of the movie’s soundtrack. Instead, songs are chosen based on plot points in the movie.
One song Mraz said she chose for the Spring Sing performance was “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra. She said the song is a little bit “creepy” but also a little bit “fun,” which she thought fit the vibe of “The Truman Show.” She said the team also chose to do the song “United in Grief” by Kendrick Lamar to portray Truman’s emotional experience in the movie.
“I thought that was perfect too because he is going through something,” Mraz said. “He’s going through a lot.”
Mraz said that one of the main challenges as a head coach of the Spring Sing team is mainly just trying to schedule practice times that work for everyone. She said for her personally as a dance major, it can also sometimes be difficult to remember that not every student performing in Spring Sing has professional dance experience.
“I think the biggest challenge was probably just trying to teach non-dancers to dance,” Mraz said.
Even though they didn’t all have dance experience starting out, Mraz said the Sigma Kappas did such a great job dancing, listening to her and taking the practices seriously over the weeks leading up to Spring Sing.
Mraz said she has gotten better at coaching, planning and choreographing over the years in Spring Sing, but she overall thinks the production just gets better and more challenging every year.
“As I’ve done it so many times, I’ve kind of learned to challenge myself, and I can expect more from these girls,” Mraz said.
In the second act of Spring Sing, cheers erupted in the audience as Alpha Delta Pi rushed onto the stage for their “Pitch Perfect” performance.
Elli Buckingham, senior social work major, said she was one of ADPi’s head coaches for Spring Sing this year.
She said she has done Spring Sing all four years of her time at WKU, but this was her first year coaching. She said this year, ADPi decided to theme their choreography and music around the plot of “Pitch Perfect.”
Buckingham said coaching has been “quite the task to take on,” especially with all the responsibilities that come with the job.
There were about 30 girls in the ADPis performance. Buckingham said she said the team had to make sure they were caught up with all the required tasks before Spring Sing, like turning in music, organizing costumes and making sure the team stayed within the budget.
Buckingham said the same budget is allotted to every fraternity and sorority for Spring Sing to use on hair, makeup, backdrops, costumes, art supplies for bobbers and other stuff for the day of the performance.
She said the ADPis were excited to perform “Pitch Perfect” at Spring Sing, especially since it’s a well-known movie. Since the sorority practiced the songs almost every day leading up to Spring Sing, Buckingham said she sometimes forgot the show would still be new and exciting for the audience who hadn’t seen the performance beforehand.
“We’re choreographing and talking [about] everything Spring Sing about every day,” Buckingham said, leading up to the performance.
Buckingham said she always wanted to be “a part of something bigger” than herself when first coming to WKU. She said she feels like being in ADPi and performing in Spring Sing with her sorority sisters who helped encourage her over the years have made that dream come true.
“I love being a part of this and I wanted the girls who were going to challenge me to be the best version of myself, and I found that in ADPi,” Buckingham said.
She said her advice for future ADPis who perform in Spring Sing is to put as much in as they want to get out of it. She said those who put the most into their practices are going to have the most enjoyable experiences.
“It’s much more than just a dance practice or a performance,” Buckingham said. “It’s about the bonds in-between.”
For the final performance of Spring Sing, Phi Gamma Delta choreographed their performance around the plot of “Madagascar.”
Hayden Kirchberg, senior accounting major, was Fiji’s head coach for Spring Sing this year.
Kirchberg said he has now been in three Spring Sing performances throughout his time at WKU. He said he shadowed under someone for his first Spring Sing, and then he’s “directed,” or coached Fijis for the past two years.
Kirchberg said Fiji chose to choreograph their Spring Sing performance around the plot of the movie “Madagascar” to play more into the movie’s characters.
“Last year’s [performance] was ‘Indiana Jones,’ so this one I kind of wanted to make more fun, lighthearted and be able to play into those characters,” Kirchberg said.
Kirchberg said before Spring Break, Fiji practiced about two to three hours each day for three days a week. He said the team bumped up their practices to four days each week after Spring Break, five days the week before Spring Sing and six days the week of Spring Sing. He said the practices toward the end were three to four hours long.
Kirchberg said in his experience with Spring Sing, it’s “almost virtually impossible” to try to come up with choreography before knowing the theme.
“I usually use audio clips and try and match a song that best fits the acting portion that happens before,” Kirchberg said.
Kirchberg said this year he wanted to elevate costumes as much as possible to make the storyline and performance more enjoyable overall. He said he enjoys being able to see what all the teams come up with every year.
Kirchberg said the biggest part of the Fiji’s practices, though, is encouraging one another to go all out during the entire routine. He said participating in Spring Sing is more about bonding with his fraternity brothers than winning the competition, and the Fijis are really close outside of practice.
Kirchberg said his advice for his chapter brothers who may coach Spring Sing in the future is to “just be patient with yourself” because the workload can be a lot to do sometimes. He said as long as time is managed well, everyone will love the work and performance regardless at the end of the day.
Kirchberg said being able to make “as many memories as possible” at practices before he graduates from WKU has truly been the best part of doing Spring Sing over the years.
“If I’m only caring about winning, then I’m truly not getting anything out of it,” Kirchberg said.