 "Photo: Courtesy of the University of Delaware")
The university’s Greek community showcased dance performances and diverse themes in the second annual Step-n-Stroll on Wednesday at the Bob Carpenter Center.
Michael Yancey, coordinator of Student Centers, said the purpose of the event was cooperation, learning about other cultures and working together to put on a show. Organizers said there were approximately 1,400 tickets sold for the event.
The main point of the event was to bring Greek life together, Yancey said.
He said the overall objective that led to the birth of this was to make a better Greek system and develop an activity to get them to work together.
The winning sorority team was Phi, Phi, Chi or Die, consisting of the sororities Chi Upsilon Sigma, Alpha Epsilon Phi and Alpha Phi. Soul Steppin’ Sisters consisting of Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Kappa took second.
The winners of the fraternity teams were UD Berets, consisting of fraternities Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Delta Rho, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Pi. Second place was taken by Formal Affairs, consisting of Phi Beta Sigma, Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilon.
The participants enjoyed uniting for this event. Chi Upsilon Sigma sorority, who teamed up with Alpha Phi and Alpha Epsilon Phi, liked that they were able to learn other Greek structures and cultures.
“I really liked the opportunity to work with the mainstream sororities, seeing how fast they were able to learn steps, and seeing them come up with their own,” sophomore Talia Yanowitz, member of Chi Upsilon Sigma said.
Sophomore Marquis Waters, of Phi Beta Sigma, and freshman Charles Bermudez, of Lambda Sigma Upsilon, also liked creating a better bond with others in Greek life. Waters said he thinks the event is a good way to get the name of his fraternity recognition and to befriend other students in fraternities and sororities.
“The unity that we have at this school, I don’t see it everywhere else,”Bermudez said. “I rarely see the unity of minority Greeks at other schools, yet alone with mainstream Greeks. It gives a better opportunity for other brothers from different schools to see what we have here and make them want to do it.”
For planning, Yancey said the first step was figuring out who would participate in the event and make sure the students knew the main message of the show and the rules.
Matt Lenno, assistant director of Student Centers, said the rules were that teams had to acknowledge the Greek nation, and each performance was no bigger than 20 people and must be six to 10 minutes long. They also had to incorporate the step and stroll.
Yancey also said each team had to come up with their own theme for their performances. He purposely did not give them instruction because he wanted to test their leadership skills.
Yancey said one of the new things they did this year was to make it mandatory that the teams changed from last year.
Lenno said the winners earned bragging rights, trophies and got to interact with other Greeks in the university’s Greek Nation.
He said last year’s event was held in Mitchell Hall and was a test run, but not all of the students were able to see it. Yancey said there are 2,700 students in the Greek Nation and the university does not have a big enough venue, except the Bob Carpenter Center, to hold them.
“Tickets were really limited to the chapters that were participating and not even a whole chapter could go because if a chapter had 80 people, they would probably get 40 tickets,” he said.
Lenno said for next year’s event they will try to fill half of the Bob Carpenter Center. He said organizers might make the Step-N-Stroll a charitable event and open it up to outside areas such as historically black colleges and universities in the tri-state area such as Delaware State University and Temple University.
Many of the fraternities and sororities are planning on being a part of next year’s event.
“We’re most definitely planning on participating in the event next year and make sure we take home the win next time,”Waters said. “I already started coming up with ideas for the next show.”
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