Lip Sync Goes Pink
By Sophia Botello, Wugene Choi, Darla Lawson, Thalia Savage, and Serena Strohmeier-Gach
The gym was crowded with people, color-coordinated to match their grade’s lip sync performers. The air filled with the excitement of friends finding each other and final arrangements being made. As the first song’s opening notes rang out into the gym and dancers rushed onto the court, lip sync officially began. After hours of preparation and careful planning, each class had one chance to prove themselves before the winner was decided in the final event of homecoming on October 13.
In the end the seniors were victorious. Many people predicted this outcome, but the other class presidents hoped to challenge everyone’s expectations using a variety of unique strategies.
New to high school and inexperienced with this spirited school event, the freshmen are often the underdogs of homecoming. Many thought that this would harm the freshman’s performance, but freshman Leah Koo, the class president for 2027, believed that inexperience could be an advantage.
“I think that the judges will definitely be more lenient towards us and enjoy our dances more because we’re the babies of high school,” she said.
However, Koo was still aware of the obstacles the freshmen faced, and she put a lot of time and effort into trying to overcome them. She developed unique strategies to help put her grade ahead of the others.
“At the start of our lip sync performance, we’re going to toss out cheerleading pom poms to the crowd for free and also give the judges some flowers and also serenade them and stuff,” Koo said. “No, I’m not bribing them, don’t worry. We’re showing our appreciation for them liking us.”
Due to all the hard work she’d put into lip sync and her observations of how dance rehearsals were going, Koo felt confident about her grade’s chances at winning. However, some of the other freshmen weren’t so sure.
“I kind of forgot the dance,” freshman Thea Weckstrӧm said. “I think we’ll be okay but I just think that a lot of the groups don’t have as much energy as they could. I’m not actually in a group so I can’t be judging too badly, but I will say that we have to memorize everything really well if we want even a chance at winning.”
Unfortunately for the freshmen, it seems that Weckstrӧm’s concerns were valid and freshmen finished in fourth place for the lip sync competition.
This year’s sophomore class went into lip sync with their own share of concerns. On the one hand, they already had one year of experience and a better understanding of how lip sync worked than the freshmen did. On the other hand, they were still up against more experienced upperclassmen. Joanne Kim, the sophomore class president, had mixed feelings about how she thought things would work out.
“Juniors are definitely really good,” Kim said, “as many juniors are a part of many different dance crews and companies, so they automatically have their own advantage.”
Kim’s strategies weren’t as elaborate as Koo’s, but there were a few things that she remembered her grade could have improved on from last year’s lip sync. As freshmen, the class of 2026 didn’t use the full gym to their advantage, so this year they did their best to maximize the gym space.
“Our grade focuses more on humor compared to actual dance skill,” Kim said. “Juniors are pretty strong in their dancing team, but fortunately we’re trying to grab the entertainment angle. Hopefully we don’t lose against the freshmen, but we might not win the competition altogether.”
While the sophomores were able to beat the freshmen by two hundred points, they still weren’t able to exceed their expectations by defeating the juniors. Unlike the freshmen, many sophomores decided to participate in the event, which may have also had to do with their higher level of homecoming experience. This enthusiasm and participation, combined with their creative finale dance to Umbrella by Rhianna, resulted in an energetic performance.
Ironically, while Kim was worried about the juniors, junior class president and Albany Hip Hop Crew captain, Soumi Roy, was worried about the sophomores. While the juniors had more experience, Roy was concerned that they lacked the energy that the sophomores seem to have in abundance.
“It’s junior year and a lot of people are busy with other things, so homecoming is not as much of a priority as it has been,” Roy said, “but hopefully we will be able to pull through for a second place.”
To make up for the fact that other juniors might not have the time to perfect their dances, Roy put in extra time on her end to help get an early start on the planning. She reached out to various people to arrange choreography, and unlike some of the freshmen, Roy felt that their dances were organized and going smoothly.
“I think our dances look really good, and the counselors seemed to really like our dances. It’s mostly just the transitions at this point,” Roy said a week before the event.
The extra preparation paid off, as the juniors beat the sophomores. While the juniors didn’t have as much participation as the grade below them, they also relied on the emotional impact of gifts, bestowing rings on the judges during their dance for Paper Rings by Taylor Swift.
The seniors are known to excel at all the homecoming activities due to their many years of experience. However, senior Grace Xu, the Commissioner of Clubs and Arts and Albany Dance Company Co-Captain, was unsure about their dances at first.
“I was not as confident before [final rehearsals],” she said, “because there were not many people showing up to practices and I wasn’t sure what many of the dances would look like.”
Fortunately, Xu felt more confident as lip sync approached and everything started to come together. She wanted to let each of the students’ preferences and personalities shine by organizing their own dances in whatever way they saw fit. She hoped that by giving them creative freedom, their range of styles would wow the judges. She also had a few plans of her own.
“Our strategies have been to try to balance our pieces to be exciting, funny, and interesting with our use of props and song choices,” Xu said.
Like the other class presidents, Xu hoped that her grade’s hard work would pay off and that the seniors would exit the competition victorious.The sheer number of seniors who participated in the competition beat out every other grade in terms of numbers. Their finale might not have been a synchronized dance, but it still got nearly the whole class involved, and their Barbie pink theme was brought into their dances more than any of the other grades had incorporated their color themes. Xu’s strategies were put to work, as the dances showed a wide variety of personalities and creative ideas.
The senior class may have won this year’s lip sync competition, but each of the grades’ hard work shone through in their dances. Whether they demonstrated their spirit through skill, strategy, energy, creativity, humor, or a mix of it all, it is clear that each grade had a good time and those that will still be here next year will go into the next lip sync with even more new ideas and inspiration.
