BIG-C step show wows Irvine crowd

A sold-out crowd filled Irvine Auditorium Saturday night to watch the annual BiCultural InterGreek Council-sponsored step show.

It was exactly the "extravaganza" that Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Program Coordinator and step show emcee Larry Moses promised.

The night began with performances by Inspiration and the Quaker Girls, after which the stage curtain was drawn. In the only major flaw of the evening, the step team from Drexel's Chi Upsilon Sigma Latin Sorority, Inc. waited as the stage crew could not get the curtain to open more than a few feet -- but when the curtain finally opened to reveal a construction site complete with warning signs and cones, the crowd roared.

Over the next four hours, the remaining nine step teams that performed engaged the audience. With jokes about other chapters, scenes inspired by The Matrix, strobe lights and smoke effects, the step teams impressed the crowd.

"You ain't gonna see this nowhere else," Moses boasted during the show.

The night contained more than just step, however -- student groups Footworkaz, Onda Latina and PENNaach also danced, and EMI Records celebrity judges Les Nubians performed two songs for the crowd.

"I thought it was a good time for unity and a good display of all the cultures that Penn has here," Wharton junior Rudy Brown said. "I would definitely come again."

When the night was over, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. had won, with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. taking second place.

"It must have been the shoes," Moses told the audience after AKA's victory was announced.

AKA -- performing in black leather pants, pink shirts and, remarkably, high heels -- launched into dance after asking, "Why AKA?" and responding, "It's the L-O-V-E love from the soul."

In one of the stunts of the night, the AKA steppers formed a row on the ground and each popped up as another sister rolled under them. Fittingly, they walked off stage to the tune, "We Are the Champions."

The men of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. entered to the Michael Jackson song "Smooth Criminal" and immediately tossed their top hats into the crowd.

With "Beat It" blaring in the background, the steppers staged a hilarious sword fight, and then a slow-motion battle against a stepper in a cow costume. Needless to say, the crowd went wild.

"We just try to have fun," said Manoj Raghunandanan, Temple MBA student and Phi Beta Sigma member. "We want to glorify our organization and our founders. It's just a chance for us to come out and celebrate."

"I have fun the whole time -- it's just so fast when you're up there," third-year Drexel student and Alpha Kappa Alpha stepper Kristin Rogers said. "We had a really good crowd reaction."

BIG-C President and AKA sister Jerryanne Heath was also pleased with the night's successes. "Tonight was absolutely awesome," Heath said. "I think that the fact that there were so many diverse groups made it interesting."

"It feels great," Raghunandanan said after the winners were announced, confessing that his team is "in the lab every night" practicing.

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