After weeks of rehearsals and bonding between several chapters in the University’s Greek community, fraternities and sororities will go head-to-head in a dance competition for the annual Atius-Sachem Mom’s Day Sing at Foellinger Auditorium on April 4 and April 5.

The event will pair 10 different sororities with fraternities for the Moms Weekend performance. Each group choreographs and directs a nine-minute performance that includes three different dances and skits. The April 4 show will start at 8 p.m., and the April 5 show will start at 7 p.m.

“It’s pretty much a sing and dance competition, a show for Moms Weekend that moms and kids are welcome to come to,” said Sarah Scheffler, co-vice president of activities for Atius and sophomore in ACES. “The participants compete, and the winning team gets philanthropy money that goes to their philanthropy of choice.”

Each year the show has a musical theme, and this year’s show revolves around Michael Jackson’s “Pretty Young Thing,” said Scheffler.

“Every team at some point in their performance has to yell ‘pretty young thing’ out to their moms; it is kind of like a tribute to all moms in the audience,” she said.

Scheffler, a member of Delta Zeta sorority on campus, was part of the winning team in last year’s competition. The team was able to win about $8,000 in philanthropy money, the first prize at last year’s competition.

“I made life-long friends through this last year, and I wouldn’t have made these connections had it not been for Atius bringing us together,” said Brittany Brandt, co-director for the Alpha Epsilon Phi Atius team and sophomore in ACES.

Brandt’s sorority has teamed up with the fraternity Psi Upsilon this year, and she along with another member of her sorority and two co-directors from Psi Upsilon have choreographed the group’s entire performance. Sororities and fraternities change the lyrics to the songs they perform to cater to mothers and to create a specialized show.

“One of the guy choreographers for us is actually a dance major, so we are really excited to see our dances on stage because we have some of the coolest choreography in them,” Brandt said.

Preparation for this show has required weeks of training and rehearsal, original choreography and collaboration between fraternities, sororities and the Atius-Sachem leadership honorary.

“We have been going to the frat twice a week for practice, and we either go over the dance from earlier or learn a new one,” said Sarah Cohen, freshman in Education and a member of the Alpha Epsilon Phi team. “I like it a lot because you get to hang out with your friends and just have fun.”

Alexander can be reached at [email protected].