Best Dance Crew is Gamma Phi Beta’s annual philanthropy event. Gamma Phi Beta is committed to building strong girls, and the point of Best Dance Crew is to have a great time and fundraise for Girls on the Run of Hampton Roads. Gamma Phi Beta’s goal is to not only bring our campus together for a fun filled night of dance, but also to fundraise for their philanthropy. Many of CNU’s organizations form teams, choreograph dance routines, and raise money in preparation for BDC.
GPhi begins the night with their video She Is. It’s a beautifully emotional video that captures women expressing their love for other women. She Is was a very powerful feminine video and a wonderful way to start off the night.
After the video, it was time for the participating organizations to perform in hopes of being awarded the title of the Best Dance Crew. There were 13 competing organizations in this years BDC: Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Chi Sigma, Zeta Tau Alpha, Pi Lambda Phi, Alpha Phi, Delta Gamma, the workers of Einstein’s, Alpha Delta Phi, Kappa Sigma, Delta Upsilon, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Phi Mu, and Kappa Delta Rho.
A shot from Alpha Chi Sigma’s Performance, CNU’s chemistry fraternity
One thing Gamma Phi Beta does as a friendly, competitive way of fundraising is called change wars. During tabling, every participating organization has a jar on the Best Dance Crew table. The more change in each organizations jar, the more chance they have of winning the change wars. But there’s a catch: any dollars that get placed in a jar causes the team to get negative points. This is an creative way to get people to dump their extra change for a good cause. The winner of 2018’s BDC Change Wars was Delta Gamma!
2018 Best Dance Crew Change War Winners: Delta Gamma
Every ticket purchased also came with a raffle ticket, and GPhi read out raffle numbers periodically through the show and the lucky numbers called got to go get a prize.
Two of the Einstein’s Crew — how fun was it to watch the people who make our coffee everyday dance?
Once all of the competing organizations had performed, there were special Showcase performances from CNU’s dance teams, CNU Storm and Hypnotic Control. Both teams are unique and insanely good at what they do, so that was a really lovely finishing note to the show.
Kappa Sig may have not had a lot of performers, but that did not take away from their incredible choreography.
Finally, it was time for voting. The winners were determined by the three judges, donations raised, and the crowd’s vote that was casted online. The WiFi in the Freeman Fieldhouse is not the best, so while everyone was trying to cast their vote there was a ten minute break. A lot of people migrated to the floor to talk to all of the dancers, and when everyone was down there it seemed like all of CNU had come to show support for Best Dance Crew. There were a ton of people in attendance! The whole night had a really communal feel to it, with all the cheering and excitement evident in the crowd during every dance, it was clear we were all really excited to be there.
The Grand Total
Before announcing winners, Gamma Phi Beta announced how much money they raised from Best Dance Crew. $14,500.37…. Insane! And every cent went to their philanthropy, Girls on the Run. That’s a ton of money raised for an amazing cause, and it just really shows how important events like these are. These events are really fun, but they’re also monumental in supporting charities and trying to make a difference.
Finally, the winners were announced.
3rd Place
In 3rd place was Phi Mu. They won over the crowd with their money themed performance. It was high energy and very well coordinated.
2nd Place
Second place went to Alpha Phi. They had a ton of girls but somehow managed to stay completely in sync the whole time. Their dance was really fun and well performed!
Finally, in first place were the last performers of the night, Kappa Delta Rho. Their flashy entrance, cool outfits, and powerful dance won over the crowd. They were a great ending to the competing dance crews, and it was enough to win them the title of GPhi’s 2018 Best Dance Crew!
Personally, a highlight of the night for me was seeing my friends from Her Campus performing with their other organizations!
Andrea Corbett, a member of our Photography and Writing Teams, performed with Alpha Sigma Alpha. She used to do theater and show choir in high school, so performing with choreography was not a totally new experience for her. She told me Best Dance Crew was an amazing experience for her because it was fun, a great workout, and she got the chance to spend time with so many of her ASA sisters. Andrea said she definitely plans on doing it again next year because it’s a great time and she’s very competitive (and we will be there to support her)!
Caitlin Murphy, director of our Photography Team, was one of the co-choreographers of the Delta Gamma team. Their dance was themed to bring out the middle school angst in all of us with their pop punk themed jams. Watching it, I was amazed by the dance! It was clear Caitlin and her co-choreographer Abby put a lot of time and effort into it and it shined.
Every dance was unique and fun. It was great seeing these people, most of who probably aren’t dancers in their everyday life, show up and show out for a great cause. It was clear throughout the whole show that a lot of time, dedication, and hard work was put into each and every dance. Words really do not do the show justice, it’s something you really have to go experience.