Panhellenic sorority members slipped on their dancing shoes and dug out their scrunchies to compete in Prevent Child Abuse America’s (PCAA) Best Dance Crew Wednesday.
Hosted by Sigma Delta Tau (SDT), PCAA’s Best Dance Crew was based on the MTV’s program, “America’s Best Dance Crew” (ABDC). In the show, teams choreographed dances in response to weekly challenges.
Like ABDC, PCAA’s Best Dance Crew included teams competing with different dances.
SDT coordinated this event to increase awareness of its chapter and philanthropy among students.
“Sigma Delta Tau is setting their goals high this year,” said junior and President of SDT Marea Tennant. “We are working hard to promote ourselves and our philanthropies on Bradley’s campus as much as we can.”
Sophomore and Vice President of Philanthropy Laura Vecchetti said the idea to host a dance competition on campus came from the SDT chapter at the University of Georgia.
“The sororities [at Georgia] compete in a dance competition to raise money for Prevent Child Abuse America,” said Vecchetti. “It is a huge deal on their campus – everyone takes the competition very seriously.”
After seeing videos from Georgia, members of the Bradley SDT chapter became interested in hosting a similar event.
Plans for PCAA’s Best Dance Crew began late last semester. Vecchetti said she talked with members of Georgia’s SDT chapter to get ideas for the event on Bradley’s campus.
Because it was a new event, only sororities were invited to form teams instead of inviting fraternity and non-greek members to participate.
Originally, all seven of Bradley’s Panhellenic sororities entered teams in the competition, but Pi Beta Phi withdrew its team earlier this week.
SDT also had a team participating, but it did not compete for the prize.
Teams were comprised of eight to 15 women, most with some dance experience. The teams competed in the Markin Performance Court.
The theme of PCAA’s Best Dance Crew was 1990s or early 2000s music. Although teams were only required to feature one song from this time period, many chose to include multiple.
Gamma Phi Beta took home first prize, with a donation of $100 to the sorority’s philanthropy.
Entry fees for teams were $25 and tickets for audience members were $3. SDT raised more than $800 for the PCAA chapter in Springfield, Ill.
In addition to PCAA’s Best Dance Crew, SDT recently hosted a few other fundraisers. Members of the sorority sold candy grams for Valentine’s Day, and they hosted their annual Sig Delt Dude Pageant in December, both of which raised money for PCAA.
As for SDT membership, which has been low for the past few years, Tennant said the sorority had a successful spring informal recruitment, and members are already preparing for fall recruitment.
“Every chapter has a unique set of skills and qualities that set them apart from everyone else,” said Tennant. “While some people might see that SDT has more struggles than other chapters, we see these as opportunities and room for improvement.”
