Halfway through Homecoming week, Cougars rounded up and showed off their creative side during the Strut Your Stuff event on Wednesday at the Cullen Performance Hall. | Aisha Bouderdaben/The Daily Cougar
Loud cheers echoed throughout the Cullen Performance Hall on Wednesday night as crowds of students gathered to celebrate Homecoming Week at the Strut Your Stuff event featuring performances from various organizations and groups across campus.
In the friendly competition promoting Cougar Pride, each group showcased their talent performing skits with musical numbers, video presentations and dances in the spirit of this year’s Homecoming theme, “Welcome to the Red Age,” a play on the lyric “Welcome to the new age” from the Imagine Dragons song “Radioactive.”
The theme is meant to celebrate the University’s growth throughout the past years and its culture, pride and tradition.
Cameos of celebrities such as Austin Powers, Miley Cyrus and even our own President Renu Khator made appearances as well as a parody of Kanye West’s infamous “I’mma let you finish” interruption of Taylor Swift.
Performances from various sororities and fraternities included dances to songs from the iconic 90’s era, like ’N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye,” Mya’s “Take Me There” and Britney Spears’ “Oops… I Did It Again” and “Lucky,” and more modern pieces, like Lorde’s “Royals.”
Among the enthused students in the audience was hotel and restaurant management junior Jasmine Dennis, director of production of the Strut Your Stuff event.
“This is the first time we have had Strut Your Stuff at the Cullen Performance Hall,” Dennis said. “I’m so excited to see everything that was worked on be put together and see all the people here. Before, there was a lot of practicing and things weren’t coming together, but now it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I want to see everything — now it’s all done.’ It’s so cool to hear everybody screaming.”
Dennis’ hard work paid off and was noticed by media production senior Kevin Aquino.
“Hard work with great production value results in a highly entertaining experience,” Aquino said.
For many of the students performing, including the alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority, it was a first-time experience but well worth the hard effort.
“It was such an amazing experience,” said education senior Tina Nguyen, the performance chair of alpha Kappa Delta Phi. “The process was long and hard, but in the end, it was all worth it. We gained friendships and made new memories.”
The alpha Kappa Delta Phi ladies would like to thank the brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon for inviting them out to participate in something they’ve never done before.
For many students stressed with midterms, such as construction management senior Darcy Gomez, the Strut Your Stuff event was a great opportunity to enjoy UH activities and spend quality time with friends.
“I’ve been so busy with schoolwork, I haven’t had much time to participate in the free events UH has to offer. This was exactly what I needed. I never knew UH had Homecoming events like these before. I’m so glad I came out. I had so much fun screaming.”
The night turned out to be a success. As computer information systems freshman Cory Rodriguez put it, “I give it five cougar paws out of five.”
