Students sign up for Stroll Off

By Carolina Astrain

Published Sept. 19, 2006

About 50 women signed up to participate in Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority's Non-Greek Stroll Off during an informational meeting Monday night.

Strolling is a form of dance that incorporates hip-hop and stepping.

Each fraternity and sorority have a routine unique to its chapter, but anyone can imitate the steps of a chapter in the Stroll Off on Sept. 22 as long as they have permission from the chapter from which they are borrowing moves.

Immediately after showing last year's winning clips, registration forms were passed out to groups of about eight women, which would form 7- to 10-minute-long routines. Performances will be judged on style, creativity, theme and difficulty.

"I was on team Chi-town that won last year," sophomore Dyshauna McArthur said. "It was very fun and entertaining. At first I was nervous. Practices were daily and along with them were many arguments, but we got through it and it paid off in the end with us getting first place. It's a really nice way to meet people."

Miller said the Non-Greek Stroll Off is the most important black campus event of the year. Historically black Greek chapters from St. Louis, Kansas City and the rest of the state attend the Stroll Sff. Cash prizes are also awarded to the top 10 teams.

"Basically within the routines, dancing styles that are signature to the black fraternities are mixed into our own," sophomore Kimberly Newsome said. "It's something everybody on campus looks forward to because usually the only people allowed to perform the fraternities' moves are the fraternities. I'm excited to be in this year's contest. I think there's a lot of good teams which will provide fierce competition especially between those returning dancers from the Chi-town and Convicts groups from last year."

Immediately after the informational meeting, there were more than enough performers who wanted to become a part of senior Bianca Tillard-Gates' dance troupe, she said.

"We had a really good team last year, so a lot of the girls here want to become a part of that," she said. "The girls we choose have to be hyped, and they should also have a lot of precision, attitude and stamina."

Each group mixes their own music — usually about 10 songs are set into a performance track.

"I'm excited," McArthur said. "Basically we all knew we were going to be in the same group from last year. We are going to change our theme, and it's going to be a big surprise."