The Crimsonettes Dance Team took first place in the University of Indianapolis Homecoming float contest on Sept. 29. The team tied their organization to the Homecoming theme of racing to make a “Grease” themed float, which encompassed both racing and theatrical dancing. Senior psychology major MacKenna Zwick said that the idea for the float came to them during one of their rehearsals.
“The easiest part was coming up with the idea to have the girls who walked in the parade with our cart dress up as if they were in the movie “Grease,” leather jackets and all,” Zwick said. “The hardest part was recreating the car used in “Grease” by using cardboard and paint.”
The Crimsonettes’ float consisted of a golf cart decorated like the red race car from the movie “Grease,” with members dressed up as characters from the movie. The rest of the team followed behind the float and performed a routine as they marched.
Senior nursing major Jenny Linn is the captain of the Crimsonettes and handled much of the work to get the float put together. She said that each Registered Student Organization is given a certain amount of funds to be able to participate in the parade and the Crimsonettes were given $50 to create the float for the parade. Zwick said the team worked together on the float during their scheduled Friday practice and was a fun team building activity for the them.
“Surprisingly, our float took about four hours to put together due to our paint drying very quickly and having enough hands to put all the pieces together,” Zwick said. “On top of team practices that night, we were fortunate [that] we were able to finish it so quickly.”
Zwick said that although the float was easy to put together initially, there were some issues the day of the parade. Right before the parade, pieces of the float began to fall apart but the UIndyDM members stepped in to help.
“The most challenging part was figuring out how to assemble our cardboard onto the float,” Zwick said. “The day of the parade, one side had completely fallen off, but luckily our friends from UIndyDM gave us some zip-ties to help secure our float.”
Linn said that she enjoyed being able to work artistically as a team on the float as well as working on team building. Zwick said she also enjoyed being creative with her teammates and seeing their vision come to life while the song “Grease Lightning” played for the judges.
