This weekend, the coordinated hop becomes as hip as the perpetually fashionable model walk, thanks to the return of two annual events. The main attractions of the Black Student Alliance's admitted student recruitment weekend, the National Pan-hellenic Council's step show and the BSA fashion show, are scheduled to captivate audiences this Friday at 5:15 p.m. on the chapel steps and this Saturday at 8 p.m. in Baldwin Auditorium, respectively.
The step show literally kicks off the weekend, featuring routines from individual National Pan-Hellenic organizations that are meant to introduce prospective students to black greek life.
"The show we do isn't a competition, it's an exhibition show, so there's no real competitive edge to it except for everyone trying to rep their organization," said junior Cliff Goodwin, the second vice president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council that organized the event.
This year marks a deviation from past shows. Due to a scheduling mishap, the event will not take place in one of the campus's larger venues, like Baldwin or Page Auditorium, but in front of the chapel. Yet the location shift, far from being detrimental, has resulted in plans for a more informal, less structured event.
"Generally, when we do the big show in Page, there'll be something like a 15-minute time limit [on the routines]," Goodwin said. "This time we're just doing a seven-minute time limit, and we're having some senior vignettes-just seniors talking about Duke in general for a little in front of the p-froshes, getting them hyped and ready to come here."
Also meant to entice the prospective students is the BSA fashion show which in recent years has become "a staple of the [BSA] weekend in... showcasing what the black community at Duke has to offer," said Simone Randolph, BSA president and senior.
The theme of the event this year is "True Life: I'm a Blue Devil." The show, for which models had to audition and were coached in cat-walking, features clothes borrowed from local malls that are meant to portray aspects of the undergraduate experience.
"We're trying to convey what it's like to be a Duke student through clothes," said senior Stephanie McCalmon, the social chair of BSA who played a lead role in orchestrating the show.
If you haven't yet heard about the event, that may be partly intentional-in order to ensure that all of the prospective students are able to attend, advertising has been limited on campus.
"Our number one goal is for the admitted students to have a great weekend and that is why we ensure that [there is room for them]," Randolph said. "If we have a thousand Duke students and a thousand seats then it doesn't really work."
However, student attendance is still encouraged and expected-the lack of advertising is partially compensated by the fact that these two events have an annual following.
"Typically [the show is] not even really advertised because it's just one of those things that is supposedly known," McCalmon said.
Similarly, anyone who wants to attend the step show is more than welcome.
"It's one of our biggest public events," Goodwin said. "It's where all of us come together, so we really like for people to come out."
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