“font-family: Times-Roman,serif; font-size: 16px;”>The Eta Chapter

of Phi Beta Sigma made history when they won their seventh straight

victory at this year’s homecoming step show. The ladies of the

Alpha Phi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., also took

back the first place title beating out the other sororities,

including last year’s winners, the ladies of the Alpha Mu chapter

of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>The Eta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma made history

when they won their seventh straight victory at this year’s

homecoming step show. The ladies of the Alpha Phi chapter of Alpha

Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., also took back the first place title

beating out the other sororities, including last year’s winners,

the ladies of the Alpha Mu chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority,

Inc.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>The show took place at the Greensboro Coliseum

on Oct.14. Eight of the nine National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek

organizations were represented in the show, though not all

competed. The Mu Psi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and

the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. performed in

exhibition.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>Mu Psi opened the show, and Sigma Gamma Rho

performed while the judges added up the scores. “We did our best

even though we were only exhibition. We do it for A&T, we do it

for Omega Psi Phi,” said Torel Daniels, senior animal science

major.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>The Zeta Alpha chapter of Zeta Phi Beta

Sorority Inc., performed after the Omegas with a “Final

Destination” theme. The theme involved other sororities like Alpha

Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta being killed off and going

missing. Their performance included a stunt with chairs.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>“I think we did a great job. We put in a lot

of practice. We’ve been practicing since the summer time,” said

Tiera Stuckey, junior elementary education major.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>Next up was the Beta Epsilon Chapter of Alpha

Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. They used Eddie Murphy and Martin

Lawrence’s movie “Life” as their theme. They re-made the beginning

of the movie and performed wearing striped jail suits. “I feel like

we did a great job,” said their step master Tim

Campbell-Allen.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>Allen also said he believes lots of practice

and dedicated steppers are key in having a good performance. The

first place winners, Alpha Phi, had one of the most current themes

using the popular reality show “Born to Dance.”

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>Their video had them emulating the show.

Chapter member Melanie Hampton played Laurie Ann Gibson while the

steppers acted as contestants on the show. Their costumes were 80’s

inspired including fish net stockings, denim vests, and crimped

hair.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>The performance also included more of a

dancing and stepping mix than others. “It’s important to

incorporate things like dance and videos into the step performance

because not everyone is into stepping and you want to appeal to

them as well,” said Alpha Phi step master Synnaman

Bingham.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>Clearly the ladies stepped their game up this

year in order to bring home the first place trophy. “We looked at

what we did wrong last year and tried to improve those things as

well as appeal to our audience better,” said Bingham. The Zeta

chapter of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc., used singer Chris

Brown’s recent legal problems as the theme for their show. All

sprayed their hair yellow to match his then blonde colored hair,

and wore orange jumpsuits as if they were in prison.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>“We know he didn’t really go to jail we just

decided to play on the fact that he had to do community service,”

said step master Justin Small. He added that the idea was

collaboration between him and fellow chapter member Austin

James.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>Celebrity and A&T alum Terrence J

surprised the crowd by coming out to introduce the ladies of Alpha

Mu. They had a Chinese theme entitled “Delta Dynasty.” They were

dressed in all black, with red sashes as belts. Audience members

also seemed surprised to see that they managed to have experienced

step-show producer Kevin Wilson do their video. Wilson did several

step-show videos throughout his time at A&T but graduated last

May and now lives in New York.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>Step masters Jamia Tucker and Rayven Dulin

explained the difficulty of being the defending champs back stage.

“It’s harder because you have to do better than last time. We have

to reset the bar,” said Tucker. They said for their performance

this year they tried to think outside the box.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>The Sigmas also knows the pressure of

defending a title all too well. “It’s a lot of pressure,” said

junior biology major Donavon Dunn. “We had a lot of sleepless

nights.” They were the final competitors to perform and used

popular movie “The Hangover” as their theme.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>They also had the stunt of the night when they

blindfolded themselves for a difficult portion of their performance

that involved them kicking over each other’s heads. “We practice so

much without the blindfolds on that the execution of the stunt

doesn’t really affect us once we put them on,” said

Dunn.

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“font-size: 12.0pt;”>The Sigmas performance not only won over the

judges but the crowd as well. “The Sigmas were my favorites of the

night. Their performance, stunts, theme, everything was really

good,” said freshman Kari Henderson. Sophomore Deshawn Gilmore also

agreed with everyone else. “The Sigma’s performance was clean and

on point,” he said. After continuing to captivate the crowd an

array of step show judges for seven years one must wonder, what’s

the Sigma’s secret? “We just go by the score sheet. We ask

ourselves ‘ok do we have this, are we lacking in this?’ We also try

to think about what the crowd wants. Oh and a lot of prayer,” said

Dunn.

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• Sylvia Obell,Managing Editor