Ravens from every dorm filled the Ralph Nolan gymnasium with thunderous cheers. Trumpets blared, cheerleaders and members of the dance team performed, some pulling double duty as participants in the annual dorm lip sync competition.
From freshmen of St. Martin’s Memorial Hall to seniors living off campus, every dorm showcased their creativity. Storytelling, choreography, and memorization of lyrics all factored into the fierce competition.
Each dorm centered their performance around a randomly assigned musical genre. For the freshman women in St. Martin’s Memorial Hall and St. Scholastica Hall, dances based on boy band music and the early 2000s took center stage. Turner Hall, a freshman men’s dorm, crafted a lip sync based on Gospel music. Classical, Irish, and Broadway themed performances were among the others.
For some, this was a farewell performance. Senior nursing student Grace Johnson took center stage during the latter half of on-campus houses’ lip sync.
“It was awesome that I got to do that,” Johnson said. “I originally was not planning on it.”
Johnson agreed to help with the lip sync at the request of an RA. However, when she arrived at the first practice, she did not expect to take charge of a choreography section.
“We only had like six people who showed up that night. So it was really crazy.”
With a theme of Disney music, Johnson and her fellow performers set out to tell a story through dance. A section based on High School Musical was pitched as the big finale.
“And I was like, well, I don’t have anything else going on,” Johnson said. “So I learned the high school musical part of it and ended up being able to teach everyone, which is really good.”
“I really enjoyed dancing. And I feel like I don’t get to do it too much, so getting to do that just was awesome for me in that way.”
Johnson, like many seniors, will miss various Benedictine traditions when the time comes for her to graduate. But the homecoming lip synch competition might be the thing she misses most.
“That’s just really fun to see how creative everyone can be,” Johnson said. “Just getting to see the creativity that everyone has. That’s awesome. And I think I am actually going to miss that.”
While this may have been a bittersweet final performance for some seniors, eager freshman will carry the torch in years to come, no matter what themes they are dealt.
