Greeks step to a different beat

Five historically African-American Greek organizations stepped, stomped, clapped and chanted their way through the Bicultural InterGreek Council's annual step show Saturday night at the Class of 1923 Ice Rink. One fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, entered wearing head-to-toe black, including black face masks. Halfway through the routine, the brothers ripped off their shirts, provoking wild cheers from the audience. They also executed a complicated routine using canes. The step show happens each year during the weekend of the Penn Relays, an annual track and field meet. "It's the best show they've ever done," said Indiana University of Pennsylvania senior and Kappa Alpha Psi brother Tyrone Bynum, who did not step Saturday. "They had no drops, even though they had some very difficult cane steps. They were flawless and they represented the fraternity very well." And their flashy moves were rewarded. The Pennsylvania State University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania chapters of Kappa Alpha Psi won for best fraternity, beating out last year's champion, Penn and Drexel University's Alpha Phi Alpha. "This is the best thing in the world," IUP freshman and Kappa Alpha Psi brother Mike Earley said. "We knew we were top of our game this year." Penn and Temple University's Zeta Phi Beta sorority won the women's competition, defeating the University of Delaware's Delta Sigma Theta, and last year's winner, Penn and Drexel's Alpha Kappa Alpha. College sophomore Tia Rideout, BIG-C correspondence secretary and Zeta Phi Beta sister, said simply, "Hard work pays off." The show began with a performance by the West Philadelphia-based Devastating Precision Youth Drill Team, a combination of steppers and drummers. After Kappa Alpha Psi's performance, Zeta Phi Beta performed, entering with prizefighter robes and poking fun at the other sororities by pretending to knock them out. In addition to the five Greek organizations that competed in the show, Cheyney University's Phi Beta Sigma fraternity performed for exhibition purposes only. BIG-C Program Coordinator Larry Moses explained that Phi Beta Sigma could not compete because many of their steppers were older than an undergraduate show allows. Moses was pleased with how the show turned out. "We were very proud of the step show and a lot of the fellowship we saw," Moses said. "There was great representation, with a large number of people visiting from other colleges." The show was co-sponsored by Black Entertainment Television in order to promote their new Web site, BET.com. The company also had a deejay in Hamilton Village earlier in the day. Moses said the company was satisfied with the step show, after-party and the carnival, and plans to co-sponsor future Penn events.

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