You enter the auditorium, shaking, nervously looking at the bright stage set up for the next activity. You know what it is and you know it’ll take you far out of your comfort zone. You want to find a way out.
That’s how a lot of people feel about the very last event of orientation at NYIT. This activity is a nerve wracking, unplanned and crazy battle. It’s our lip sync battle.
Groups are given about an hour and a half of prep over two days to put together a dance to an insane minute and a half mash-up of popular songs. Groups must lip sync the songs (which involves memorizing the words), use props and demonstrate school spirit.
This is incredibly difficult for some groups and easy for others. You listen to the song, come up with dance moves (or alternatively, a story) and try to win over the judges. What’s truly difficult about this activity is that there will always be the few that are too scared to jump right in. Getting on a stage, dancing and singing for a large group of people you’ve never talked to is not something that’s usually required at orientations, and definitely isn’t mentioned when we speak about ours. It’s often a huge surprise for students when they find it on their schedules.
But, we do this event because it helps the students feed their butterflies. We highly encourage everyone to put their whole soul into the performance, because something really special happens when a group is particularly great – the entire auditorium will cheer them on. Bonds are created. Friendships bloom.
It’s really great to watch strangers supporting each other. They all have the same goal, the same worries and the same task. Everyone is nervous, no matter how much experience they have on the stage. And once the students realize that, it becomes easy.
Here are some tips for people struggling to feed their butterflies:
- Do something a little crazy. Then whatever you do next will seem like nothing.
- Find people who have a common goal as you, or a common fear, and get through it together. (Remember: “None of us isn’t as smart as all of us”)
- Talk about why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling. When a group would be particularly stuck, we’d use this method to get to the bottom of their worries.
Don’t forget to do something that feeds your butterflies at least once a week – if not, then what are you really learning?
BONUS: A blurry example from NYIT’s 2012 orientation
