“Now shimmy!” yelled the instructor to the 25 girls, who then proceeded to shake their shoulders vigorously. Pants, giggles and exclamations of “Zumba is so fun!” echoed through Houston’s Hall of Flags.
The event that took place was a Zumba workshop, in which girls from various sororities “dancercised” to tunes like “Rabiosa” by Shakira, and “Let’s Get Loud” by Jennifer Lopez.
The workshop was part of Pump it Up with Panhel, an initiative launched by the Panhellenic Council this month. The initiative aims to promote mental and bodily health, according to College junior and Panhel President Jill Wang.
The initiative serves a two-fold purpose, according to College junior Alyssa Drobatz, vice president of public relations for Panhel. Apart from promoting healthy living and exercise, Panhel hopes that event fees will raise money for the group’s scholarship fund.
“The scholarship fund hopes to raise as much money as we can to support incoming members to the Panhel community,” Drobatz said.
Panhel’s scholarship fund, a relatively recent initiative, hopes to cover at least one Panhellenic sorority member’s dues for an entire semester.
Pump it Up with Panhel, which had a yoga and frozen yogurt event earlier this month, is an avenue for the Panhel community to grow closer, according to Drobatz.
“A big part of Panhel is to interact with other sororities,” she said. “We all have similar interests, and we are all Greek, so we should not isolate ourselves within our chapters.”
The initiative may serve as more than just a way for sorority members to interact.
According to a recent study published in the scientific journal Sex Roles, women who join sororities are more likely than others to judge themselves based on their appearances and display bulimic tendencies. The workshop, which promotes healthy eating and exercise, may be a way for Panhel to counteract this trend.
However, College junior Lakshmi Sivaguru, the vice president of risk management for Panhel, feels that Penn’s Panhellenic community doesn’t fit in with this apparent national trend.
“Our initiative attempts to promote healthy and safe behavior not just among the Panhellenic community but among the entire Penn community,” Sivaguru said.
College freshman Toni O’Boyle, a sister of Alpha Chi Omega who was present at Friday’s event, said that although she had heard about Pump it Up with Panhel, she did not know too much about the initiative going into it.
“I think it’s great that the workshop is only $3,” she said. “At Pottruck, a Zumba workshop would have cost so much more.”
Sivaguru believes that O’Boyle’s enthusiasm about the event has been shared by many.
“The response has definitely been very positive,” Sivaguru said. “I think there has been a lot of positive response to our yoga event, as well as the Zumba workshop. Along with our speaker series, I think this is an overall great program.”
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