Last Thursday marked the third annual Step and Stroll event held by the Student Development and Campus Activities (SDCA) office.

Hosted by the director of Greek Life, Robert Thomas, organizations strutted their stuff to see who had the best dancers on campus.

For those who don’t know about step and stroll, the two are different forms of dancing. Stepping is an American dance form cultivated by African American fraternities that encompass rhythmic synchronized dancing, clapping and stepping, without music. Strolling, which African

American fraternities also created, is more focused on a routine built around a specific song and is typically done at parties in a line.

What makes the competition so difficult is that the SDCA selects a dozen songs that aren’t usually danced to and are only given a week to practice them. For instance they chose top 40 tracks like “Roar” by Katy Perry and “Clarity” by Zedd, and a mystery song that they didn’t hear until the night of the event, forcing improvisation.

“This year’s mystery song proved to be quite challenging because we selected “Boyfriends Back” by The Angels, which was a hit song 50 years ago, commemorating Pace’s 50th Anniversary,” Thomas said.

Lambda Upsilon Lambda (LUL) Fraternity won first place

in the stroll competition and a 1,000-dollar prize, while Alpha Phi Alpha came in second winning 500 dollars. Alpha Phi Alpha also won first place in the step competition, winning an additional 1,000 dollars. “It feels amazing, it is the first time we have won since being established at Pace. We worked so hard on the routine and practice, so to see the work pay off it’s very rewarding,” senior communications major and President of LUL Jonathan Calixto said.

The Step and Stroll show is the biggest in the Westchester County, attracting outside teams as well as organizations that aren’t usually associated with this style of dancing.

“It’s typically a ‘cultural’ (I don’t like calling it that) fraternity event but any organization can compete,” Thomas said.
This year barriers were broken with the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) organization competing for the first time.

“Even though we didn’t win this year it doesn’t mean we can’t win in the future, so I really hope we compete again,” junior nursing major and President of the GSA Edwin Rodriguez said.

Regardless of who won and lost, the event leaves a lasting impact on the Pace community.

“The show is a great way for students to get their organizations name out there, it’s also an opportunity for their members to bond because creating a step or stroll performance is just like team building, it’s a project that everyone needs to work together for it to be successful,” Thomas said.