MU hosts Sprite Step Off
The event also incorporated service, with a goal of 1.5 million hours.
Published Oct. 6, 2009
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The Outer Limits Dance Team performs during the regional semifinals for the Sprite Step Off competition Saturday at the Hearnes Center. The competition showcased fraternities and sororities from the National Pan-Hellenic Council who competed to move on to the national finals in Atlanta.
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The floor was covered and a stage was built for fraternities and sororities to compete in the Sprite Step Off.
Sprite is hosting hundreds of events across the country, calling fraternities and sororities with step teams to come and compete against each other and make their way up the competition ladder to a grand prize pool of $1.5 million in scholarship money.
The men of Alpha Phi Alpha's from Fontbonne University and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville chapters came in first and second place, respectively. The winning sorority was the ladies from Alpha Theta Omega. Both teams will be moving on to the regional finals in Chicago.
"Stepping comes from African native dances," SIUE Alpha Pi Alpha member Terrance Murphy said. "It's really a mix of dancing and marching."
Stepping is a type of dance that includes stomping, clapping and slapping different body parts to create sounds. Teams can be anywhere from two to seven people and can use props ranging from canes, which the ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho used, to a bed, which the sorority Zeta Phi Beta used in their show.
"Stepping is nerve-racking," Zeta Phi Beta member Rasheedat Yahaya said. "All of those nerves have to go out the window when you step on stage."
Zeta Phi Beta was one of the MU chapters to take place in the competition.
The night started off with the ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho and moved on to chapters from Alpha Theta Omega, Zeta Phi Beta and the men of Alpha Phi Alpha.
Between Greek performances, the Mid-Missouri Highsteppers, a young stepping group, showed off their moves and MU's own dance crew Outer Limits had a show also.
The night was about the dance moves, but the day leading up to it was all about service.
"We went to the Boys and Girls Club this morning," Murphy said. "We kicked it with them, showed them some steps and talked to them about college and staying in school."
All of the fraternities and sororities that competed in the Step Off competition did community service Saturday morning. Groups, such as Zeta Phi Beta, who couldn't make the Boys and Girls Club made up for it by helping out in other places.
"Sprite is telling people to match the $1.5 million pool with 1.5 million community service hours," Yahaya said. "I think that Sprite is showing that Greek has the community service side and also the academic side."
Saturday night also featured a DJ battle to break up the competition and Big Boi of Outkast was there to express his enthusiasm for stepping after the winners were announced.
But for the brothers of the fraternities and the sisters of the sororities, it wasn't about the money or the competition.
"This is a great experience," SIU Alpha Phi Alpha member Christopher Arceneaux said. "It's an adrenaline rush and it makes you step harder when you go out there."
