Stepping competition unites organizations

Vowing to "Protect Richmond from the ordinary," members of University of Richmond's Pi Beta Phi sorority won Stepping 101 on Friday night with their military-themed "GI Pi Phi" routine in the Robins Center.

Members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. reached out to local, historically African-American fraternities and sororities who are known for stepping, and paired members with the Panhellenic sororities, said Dwayne Foster, president of the Alpha's Upsilon Gamma Chapter. Most groups began practicing the week before fall break, he said.

Junior Alex Galanis, assistant secretary of the University of Richmond's Rho Mu chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, was the head coach of Pi Phi's step team. Though it was her first year coaching a team, this was the third year AKA and Pi Phi worked together, she said.

"I feel like I met a lot of girls and we had a lot of bonds, I can see myself continuing relationships with them afterward," Galanis said.

Step masters called out to their groups on stage and incorporated echoing into their routines. Some groups thanked their step masters on stage. Each group chose a unique costume theme that represented the values of its chapter.

Audience sections were filled with balloons in colors representing the different soroities. Step groups worked traditions of sisterhood and chapter history into their chants, which brought rousing cheers from the audience.

Hannah Scott, a sophomore in Pi Phi, said her group had worked hard and she was glad it had paid off. The steps were hard to remember because it was a 12-minute routine, but most difficult overall, she said, was the part where they had to kick their legs up.

"We were really struggling with that during practice, so it was the most rewarding to nail that on stage," Scott said.

Members of Alpha Phi Alpha sold tickets for $10 in the Heilman Dining Center and the Tyler Haynes Commons for a month leading up to the event, Foster said. About 600 people attended the event, and ticket sales raised almost $6,000, before expenses, Foster said in an email.

The first place prize was $500 to Pi Phi, and Kappa Kappa Gamma, the second-place winners, received $200. Rachel Cascio, a sophomore who stepped for Kappa, said she was proud and happy they had won second place.

Sororities bought large blocks of tickets and sold them to members and alumnae, said Ra-Twoine Fields, a senior Alpha, who sold tickets for the event. Fields said that many alumni who returned to campus for homecoming weekend had bought tickets for the show.

Preparing for this performance was different from practicing for Pi Phi's Lip Sync event last month Caroline Moles, a junior in Kappa Alpha Theta, said.

"It's a lot more serious, there's definitely a closer knit group of girls," Moles said.

Performers needed more concentration and had to look serious while stepping, she said.

Both AKA and Alphas perform step routines following membership rituals and during other official events, said Sarah Bowers, president of AKA. Local chapter members and Richmond students performed coordinated during intermission.

When asked why her chapter didn't compete, Galanis said: "Whenever we perform, we step," Galanis said. "It's just part of a tradition, so we probably have a lot more experience in step then a lot of the other girls do."

Bailey and Foster said they thought the event had gained recognition on campus, and they hoped to establish it as a tradition for the organizations to work together.

"Hopefully it will get to the point where the girls can teach themselves, and we can participate in it as well," Foster said.

The Alphas used this event to raise funds for its chapter's operating costs.

"We have enormous costs for such a small chapter, and being new, we don't have the alumni base that some other chapters do," Foster said.

Sororities paid a fee to register, and those funds went toward charities of the step coaches' choice, including St. Jude's Hospital and Breast Cancer Awareness, he said.

A large portion of the money raised will go to the Alpha's national philanthropy, March of Dimes, which provides resources for families with premature babies, Foster said.

This group is important to the fraternity because African-Americans often don't have as many resources to care for premature children as other groups do, he said.

Contact staff writer Taylor Cloonan at taylor.cloonan@richmond.edu.