Students, alumni and other homecoming-goers attended the Greek Life Step Show in Burr Gymnasium.
The event took place Friday, Oct. 17 with flyers advertising to arrive at 7 p.m. By 7:30, the gym quickly became full with many choosing to stand for the opportunity to watch the show. This caused officials to issue a fire marshall warning to the audience, requesting that they find seats or sit on the steps of stairs.
DJ Noble, a graduate of Howard University, kept the crowd’s energy up with music ranging from the 90s, 2000s and current hits.
Some fraternities even began strolling in honor of the event while the audience waited for the event to officially start.
The energy during the songs, however, was nothing compared to the crowd’s energy when DMV native, comedian and media personality Jasmin Brown and her co-host walked on stage signaling the start of the step show.
The event followed the theme “Meccaverse,” with all participating organizations tasked with creating a concept to perform.
The ladies of Alpha Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated were the first to take the stage. In their performance, “The Poised Ivies” were a group of women tasked with helping their community and bringing light back to the world. When one of their Ivies is stolen, the members use an array of songs to fight to get her back. They ended their performance with the popular single by Yardfest performer GlorRilla, “FNF.”
Their formations, storytelling and show-stopping moves placed them in Second Place in the sorority category. Noelle Bryant, one of the members who performed, expressed her pride.
“I’m just proud of me and my sisters. We worked very hard on the show and I know we walked off the stage very proud of ourselves,” she said. She also gave insight into their creative process. “It was a lot, a lot of brainstorming. We came up with everything, we created everything. It was a lot of trial and error, and we ended up coming up with a great show in my opinion.”
The Bethune-Annex Step-Team was next on stage, using a Catwoman and Batman concept, followed by a ten-minute intermission that had the gymnasium belting out the lyrics of Tevin Campbell’s “Can We Talk,” along with the co-hosts.
After the intermission, Alpha Chapter, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. was up next. In their concept, they were “Sigma Men,” protectors of the Yard and on a mission to defeat the evil threatening to wipe out their fraternity. They won second place in the fraternity category.
Devonte King, a Spring 2022 initiate who was a part of the performance also expressed his pride for their win. “It feels really good,” he said. “We put on a great show, we made the crowd happy, and we did the best we could. It just felt really good to go out there and give the crowd a good time.”
Speaking on how they came up with their concept, King said they built their performance on brotherhood. Noting that their inspiration was X-Men he said, “We take people for how they are and we feel like the theme really encapsulates what Sigma really is.”
The Quad Step Team took the stage next with a performance inspired by Black Widow. Following the Quad Step Team, Alpha Chapter, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated presented their Avatar-inspired performance.
The last sorority to perform was Alpha Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Their performance was Black Panther inspired with the members being sent on a mission to recover their stolen vibranium. The group won first place and received a cash prize of $2,500.
Briana Charles, a member of Alpha Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. who graduated from Howard in 2022, was excited to come back and support her organization. “It was well-deserved,” she said, speaking of the sorority’s win. “They put it all out on the stage, I’m very proud of them.”
Beta Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated was the last group to perform. Kicking off their performance with music provided by an African drum, the audience was immediately captivated. Their Black Panther-inspired performance included tribal-inspired clothing, matching visuals, and epic moves. They received first-place fraternity earning a cash prize of $2,500.
Tar-U-Way Bright, a member of Beta Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, spoke about how it felt to place first. “We put in a lot of work, a lot of weeks went into preparing for this moment,” he said.
The winning organizations were given the opportunity to take pictures with their prizes while others went to mingle with each other outside the gym.
Copy edited by Nhandi Long-Shipman [correction: This article previously reported the cash prize as $25,000. The article has since been updated to reflect the accurate cash prize as $2,500.]
