All those initial laughs and giggles turned to awes and applause.. “If You Can Step, You Can Step!”
Some of their competition:
Delta Sigma Theta
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Some of their competition:
Delta Sigma Theta
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha
18 responses to “Sprite Step Off Winners- Atlanta: Zeta Tau Alpha”
See.. and you thought racism was going to end by White people letting us into their culture but it looks like the right course of actions was to let them into ours.
I disagree. They should have never been in our playground.
Which is WHY i don’t support Step shows anymore. DILUTION of PRESERVATION of something we hold near and dear to us as members of BGLO’s. for ALL of the years that we have had to be LESS THAN or CLEARLY less privileged than MAINSTREAM america? Well… I don’t think we’ve had enough time to have our OWN. and for people to have ALWAYS HAD THEIR OWN- I find it to be a disagrace and semi mockery to a large group of people.
they should have NEVER entered into the contest. Point blank – end of story. SPRITE won’t be getting my money – nor will step shows that have African American’s in the audience cheering people on and they don’t even KNOW their own history.
“They should have never been in our playground” Man thats some coward shit…they deserve to be there like anybody else. Competition breeds success!!! I love it. You don’t have to be black to be proud of your organization. At the end of the day we are all suppose to be supporting one common objective and that is the community…by the way, check out the last 5 letters in that word…unity!!! Get it together and trust me sprite and all the step shows dont need your money. You sound just as crazy as the white dude in GA trying to start an all white basketball league. Get a grip.
Congrats to Zeta Tau Alpha
I think it’s amazing that the white community is making an effort to take part in such a long tradition and trademark of black culture. This should be appreciated not disrespected.. if it was the other way around and people were talking about not letting a black team compete in a predominantly white competition.. blacks would be up in arms.
Yeah…I mean they won off shock value. They stroll at the end was dope…but I think they had “choreography help”. Stepping/marching has “reason” behind the way and style Black Greeks do what they, do HOW they do. This is what happens when shows become commercialized and more about gimmicks and less about marching/stepping/singing and tradition. Style, Soul, Grace and Expression!
“If you don’t train for something, you’ll die from anything” – Athlete
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There is great history behind greek stepping/marching/hoofing.. but are those words inherently owned by our community? The SPRITE step off didn’t make mention of “HBCU” “African American” or “Greek”. It was a Step Show. There was obviously shock value up front that they had the confidence to come out, but then when the crowd actually realized they could Step.. they were in full support of a vote to choose them as the winners of the show.
Just like with the White Miss hampton University, the awards are given based on performances, depth and a vote from judges and the audience. Apparently, both of the aforementioned parties performed better than their competition.
*Applause* I seriously have to give props where due. There show was hot.
I used to teach step to children of all nationalities and I’ve choreographed a couple of shows for the Cincinnati Ben-Gals overseas tours and one of my largest hurdles in doing so was the constant excuse, “Deanna, we can’t do this, we’re not black.” Sure they meant it as a joke but there was a underlying/real mental barrier that did exist and I had to break it down just get them to TRY.
I plan to show this video to all of my former students and future students before they make any excuses.
AKA insists it taught ZTA how to step… Well you showed them the skill i give you that but this ladies perfected it. Imitation is the best form of flattery it is said. These ladies might have copied some steps.. Yet these ladies had the courage to go into a competition where they were not only going face criticism but also hostility and walked out with the prize. Their performance showed there dedication and passion for their craft. They worked hard and the final product showed it. I have to admit several of the traditional step teams performances were cocky and sloppy. Certain teams acted as if they were entitled to win. I’m happy to see that the audience who was predominantly African American supported these ladies, once they saw there creativity and skill it had nothing to do with race and color.. Even Luda was surprised at what he saw on his surprise visit. For future competitions i think certain teams need to remember why they began stepping in order to bring back their fire…
The black culture should be proud that they are being emmulated by a non-black community. Many white people did not like it when Jackie Robinson broke barriers in a traditional and historical white competition that they considered “their own”. For those concerned about “perserving traditions”, this should make you try harder in that quest. Congrats to all of the competators.
I loved this, where did they find these white girls?
My white sisters get my vote. They did great steppin. My sisters danced well but did little steppin. Lets stick to creative steppin and leave dancing for “Dancing with the Stars”.
I want to see steppin go to another level. Shakin your booty is not steppin unless you shakin and steppin at the same time.
hey, kitkat and others, don’t you leave being able to be racist? It sure seems like it. That predominantly black audience sure was hooting and hollering (positively) when the winners were doing their performance. They were applauding because it was a great performance. some kind of light bulb went off in their head when the winners were about to be announced reminding them that maybe they shouldn’t have cheered because now those white girls were about to win.
[…] have messed up when they did all that cheering for those white girls. So, when the white chicks, Zeta Tau Alpha, were announced, they did the classiest thing they could think of and booed […]
I enjoyed their performance it was good. I just hope that years from now white people don’t start taking credit for being the originators of stepping. That’s all. Show respect for the originators. Just like some ethnomusicologists are trying to water down Jazz music. Or some are trying to say the Afro-Cuban music was started by poor white Spaniards. Elvis is celebrated but there is an omission of where he copied his style. Give proper credit where credit is due.
All I keep hearing is “white”. Funny, ZTA is a very diverse fraternity, my sisters did amazing. This coming from a Hispanic women. Love Zeta Tau Alpha.
nice, they sure took that prize. this isn’t a race competition, it’s a step competition get it right people, drop all the racial comments already.
Wow, this was great. I enjoyed seeing all of the finalist. Kudos to SPRITE for hosting the event. This brings back a lot of memories as a greek alum. I recall at UNT (Denton, TX) we had a greek week where one predom black frat/soro was paired with two predom white. Each team had to do participate in the predom white greek event “Sing Sang” (its like a mini broadway musical) and each team had to perform in a “Step/Stomp Show”. Our sister team was Chi Omega and we had them girls stepping like Deltas/AKAs/Zeta. Been the main choreographer, I got a lil flap from the Sistah’s. But everyone came together as GREEKS! Not White Greeks or Black Greeks, but GREEKS. It was a lot of fun. Heavy diverse Univ/Colleges should try it.