The Dartmouth Dodecaphonics, an 11-member co-ed a cappella group, took runner-up in the quarterfinals of the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella held at Rollins Chapel this Saturday.
The Rusty Pipes of Rensselear Polytechnic Institute garnered the first place position and the Smith Smiffenpoofs took an honorable mention.
"We're so flattered that we won! The audience was hugely supportive and I think that really helped our performance just in contributing to our excitement," Carrie Spring '98, the Dodec's director, said.
The Dodecs, along with the RPI Rusty Pipes, will now head to Smith College in Northampton, Mass. on March 7 to participate in the semifinal competition, which if the group places in the top two spots there will give them a chance to compete in the NCCA Finals.
The Finals will take place on May 9 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The winner of the tournament will receive a $1,000 cash prize.
The Dodec-aphonics' runner-up nod was based on their musicality, presentation, originality and soloists.
Their set began with Madonna's "Material Girl" and included snippets of choreography found in Madonna's video and bits of original elements. Their second number, "Natural One" by Folk Implosion included a solo by Thomas Farley '98, and their last song was a rendition of the Red Hot Chili Peppers's "Aeroplane."
Having more fun and backed by the Dartmouth crowd, the Dodecs bested their performance from last year at the NCCAs.
"Last year we competed in the same competition at Bates [College] and won Best Arrangement for a U2 Medley and Best Soloist for Simon Tang '97 on 'The Water is Wide,'" Spring said.
"We were really surprised by the outcome because there wasn't a group that competed that we could have crossed off the list. Everyone sang well and had really tight shows. The Cords, especially, put on a really good show that everyone loved and that impressed our pants off. Made us proud to be from Dartmouth with them," she said.
"We haven't thought a lot about March 7th. I think we'll concentrate on Whingding maybe, just for this week. We like our competition set but are considering putting in a slower song somewhere so we have something to sound pretty on. We're a little tired out of singing plain old loud," Spring said.
The Dartmouth Cords, the hosts of the competition, did not place in Saturday's event.
Their set included a spoof of Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me" and George Michael's "Faith."
"We were also very pleased with our own performance," the Cords said. "The standing ovation we received let us know that we gave the audience what they wanted to see -- an outstanding and extremely entertaining set."
They also said they were very pleased with the 500 people who attended the competition.
Christie Miller of the SUNY Binghamptonics took the best arrangement for the groups' "After the Flame."
Gretchen Smith of Smith College was selected as the best soloist in the competition.
