With the speakers blasting Lil’ Jon’s “Snap ya fingers,” that’s exactly what the performers did Saturday evening at the first annual Funkytown Stompdown step show competition.The show raised more than $1,700 in ticket sales, which will be donated to charities decided on by the Eta Psi chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the sorority members of Zeta Tau Alpha, the event’s hosts, in the coming weeks.
Jerret Holmes, a senior Alpha Phi Alpha member, said he was pleased with the success of the event and the positive response of the people in attendance.
“The acts did a really good job of representing their organizations,” Holmes said. “They kept the audience involved and kept it classy.”
Acts entertained the audience between step performances with a freestyle rap battle, and Greek organizations strutted through the aisles and hopped on stage.
Steven Walton, a junior criminal justice major, said the event was a good start to having more events that involve coprogramming on campus. Coprogramming is the collaboration between organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council and Panhellenic Council to bring a diverse group of events to campus.
“For it being the first time, it had its rough spots, but it was cool,” Walton said. “Having the Zetas involved was a wonderful thing.”
The highlight of the show was by the first-prize-winning University of Houston Zeta Zeta chapter of Phi Beta Sigma. The Sigmas did a routine that involved spoofing the female organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Walton said.
Demedtre Battle, a member of the Zeta Zeta chapter, said, “It was a nice event that ran real smooth. There were a lot of people here, which made it fun to perform.”
Other noteworthy performances included the University of Texas at Dallas’ chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, who let us know “Diamonds are Forever” and the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School step team who received a standing ovation.
“We’re going to use this to try to expand to other organizations, such as Tri-Delta and Delta Gamma,” Holmes said.
