Strolling is a form of stylized dance, in which students synchronize routines to popular music, said Rob Biddle , National Pan-Hellenic Council advisor.
Every year, members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, also known as the Divine Nine, spend hours perfecting stroll routines to showcase their moves and pride for their organization at the competition.
Each organization is judged on the syncopated dance elements used and the crowd’s reaction to the performances.
“We really do it for two reasons,” said Biddle. “There is a campus desire to see greek entertainment but also it’s an opportunity to display ... the different strolls.”
This year, the Stroll Off brought in 500 attendees .
“It allows people to experience greek life in a different manner,” civil engineering senior and president of the council George Williams said.
The competition was broken down into three rounds — “hype,” “slow,” and the final “old school” round.
During the hype round, each fraternity and sorority came dressed in their greek letters and rallied the crowd up by strolling to top hip-hop songs.
The round was filled with jumps, fast-paced dancing and exaggerated moves.
Because half of the scoring came from the crowd’s reaction, Williams said each organization picked crowd-pleasing dance moves.
After a five-minute intermission, it was time for the slow round.
The participating members changed from their greek letters to formal clothing and charmed the crowd with slow, seductive strolling while rhythm and blues music filled the gymnasium.
After the slow round, the judges tallied up the scores from the first two rounds to see which two sororities and fraternities would move on to the final round to battle for the championship title.
For the men, Alpha Phi Alpha and Iota Phi Theta moved to the final round. For the women, it was Alpha Kappa Alpha against Zeta Phi Beta .
During the old school round, ‘90s tunes blasted while the men and women strolled for one last time.
At the end, the men of Alpha Phi Alpha were able to win over the men’s strolling trophy. Zeta Phi Beta took home the women’s trophy for the second year in a row.
Rachel Tate , interdisciplinary studies in social science senior and member of Zeta Phi Beta , said winning again was an humbling experience.
“With everything going on, we did it again and that feels great,” Tate said.
