Cell Block Tango
The Cell Block Tango comes from Chicago. The Cell Block Tango has 6 female characters, whose names are Liz, Annie, June, Hunyak, Velma, and Mona but are commonly referred to as Pop, Six, Squish, Uh-Uh, Cicero, and Lipschitz. There is more than one way of performing it. One involves their male dance partners... only one is required. They each tell their story (Pop kills her husband, who pops gum, Six dates a mormon who had 6 wives, Squish kills her husband, who accuses her of cheating, Uh-Uh is an innocent hungarian ballerina, Cicero's husband cheats on her with her sister, and Lipschitz's boyfriend also cheats on her) and then procede to tango with their partner (Or in Uh-Uh's case, she dances around him). The sketch is better done with chairs for the Murderesses who are not dancing... who also sing the chorus. There are choreographed bits at the beginning and end that also benefit from chairs.
At Davidson Term II 2005, some of the staff did this at the lip sync. Some of tthe staff did this at the lip sync at term I at Davidson as well. A student group also attempted to do the skit that term (and had it down - the difference was that they would sing it) for the Talent Show, but it was squashed as it was similiar to the Staffs' lip sync.
At Duke East Term II 2004, a group of six girls did this for the lip sync. They only used a male for the introductory part. The Murderesses who were not in the front stood in back swaying and singing the back-up. There are group dances in between parts and a heavily choreographed bit after Cicero's part for the other Murderesses - Cicero stands in front, leading the music. This group won 2nd place at the LiP Synch. The practices for this group's version took place in 3rd Floor Pegram Commons which led to a very awkword confrontation btwn the group (all 3rd or 4th years) and the 2nd year guys who lived on that hall. Also, the group was late to Sunday lunch because of practices and could only sit at one of the round tables in the back of the cafeteria. This action led to the coining of the phrase "Sluts of the Round Table".
This was again performed at East Term I 2006 for the TiP Sync, and was almost performed Term 2, but the act was cancelled due to a feeling of unreadiness on the part of the performers.
At Davidson Term Two 2006, six girls (pop-Grace (2) six- Lexi (2) squish- Sam (2) Uh Uh- Christine (2) Cisero- Steph (B) Lipschitz- Jaq (2)) and six boys (pop- Ryan M (4) six- Danny (1) squish- John (2) uhuh- Skwerl (1) cisero- sam (3) Lipschitz- Patrick (3)) preformed it for the lip sync contest.
At Davidson Term 2 in 2007, the "tradition" was filled again by 12 students under the direction of one irate choreographer. The lip sync competition was moved from the 900 room into Chambers, only angering the hot-headed 2nd year even more. The students worked almost unwillingly under her control for about a week, and almost didn't get in during "auditions". In the end they pulled through and gave a spectacular performance, but did not get recognition in the term book. The girls were all from the basement and they are Pop- Mikayla, Six- Lydia, Squish- Kathryn, Uh Uh- Faye, Cisero- Steph (the hot head choreographer), Lipschitz- Dana. The boys were very competent and complied to rigorous rehearsals. Pop- a 1st floor boy who's name escapes me, Six- Damien (3rd floor), Squish- Andrew (Drew) (4th floor), Uh Uh- Danny (1st floor), Cisero- Calvin (1st floor), Lipschitz- Rob (1st floor).
(Note, the obviously disgruntled male who wrote the above paragraph neglected to mention, that the boys were consistently late to every brief practice that we managed to schedule and hardly complied to the rehearsals even when they were present. Steph was not that bad, in fact, I took as much of the perfectly legitimized anger away from you ungrateful people as i could. ~Choreographers assistant)
At East Term 1 in 2008, some particualarly talented TIPsters performed a reverse-gender version of Cell Block Tango, with guys in drag portraying the six merry murderesses of death row. See Trans-gender Cell Block Tango