Posted September 11, 2014
By MICHELLE BERTRAN
Party Walk is a showcase that minority greek organizations participate in to showcase who they are and they do for the University of Miami’s student body.
The 2014 edition of Party Walk will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday in the Student Activity Center’s Patio.
It is a show with no entrance fee for the audience in order to simply raise awareness of its organizations. This showcase can also be beneficial for recruitment purposes. Potential members can watch the organizations to determine which one they would like to be a part of in the spring, when recruitment starts.
Party Walk is an annual tradition hosted by Lamba Tau Alpha, a Hispanic sorority. Each organization’s performance will consist of seven minutes of stepping, strolling and a skit.
Stepping is when the group members make beats in unison by clapping their hands, stomping their feet, and slapping their thighs. The name of the show “Party Walk,” originated after strolling because that is what strolling is, dances performed by culturally based fraternities and sororities.
For example, the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha’s signature stroll is called the “shimmy.” It’s where members shake their shoulders then clap their hands or snap their fingers in rhythm with the music.
Briana Sullivan, junior in exercise physiology and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha has high expectations for the outcome of the showcase.
“I expect for there to be a lot of excitement and a lot of unity as especially within my sorority because it’ll be our first time performing as a chapter,” Sullivan said. “This will be a great way to present ourselves as a chapter to a lot of the underclassmen who might not know about us to kind of know who we are.”
As for the skit portion, each organization will perform a seven minute, rehearsed skit that represents them best so that the audience will have an idea of who they are. Each group will have a theme to which they will dress. The Alpha Kappa Alphas, for example, are going with a school theme so they will be dressing up as schoolgirls with the high socks, penny loafers, plaid skirts, button down dress shirts and ties.
Fraternities will walk first, then sororities. Order is determined by national organization founding date. The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority will be the first to perform for the ladies because they were the first to be founded in 1908.
Kristian Brown, junior majoring in sports administration, said she is excited for her sorority to set the tone for the show.
“We go first because we are the first and finest,” Brown said. “We have been practicing every night and will keep practicing every night until its show time.”
All organizations are keeping their performance routines private. They want it to be a surprise so they do not share with each other anything that they might have up their sleeve for Party Walk.
In order to get the word out and spread awareness about Party Walk, members of the sororities and fraternities will be putting up pictures of flyers on social media and statements encouraging students to attend. However, according to Kristian Brown, it is mainly a word of mouth process.
The Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity will be the ones to open the show since they were the first to be founded in 1906. Will Saunders, senior member of Alpha Phi Alpha majoring in history, says it is his third year participating in Party Walk.
“It’s like a sporting event where you get to show out what you’ve been practicing for and you really feed into the crowd,” Saunders said. “We have been practicing two to three nights a week up until now, but starting Monday when it’s the week of the show we will start practicing every night.”
When everyone has performed, everyone strolls together on the Patio like a party type of atmosphere.