'Spurs and Struts' packs Greene Street
Students from a mix of organizations — many of them in Fraternity and Sorority Life — flocked to Greene Street Monday night to support their members participating in the annual Spurs and Struts competition that kicked off USC’s Homecoming week.
Delta Delta Delta sorority and Beta Theta Pi fraternity strutted away with the top honors. People in the crowd sported boots, scarves, vests and, of course, their Greek letters as they cheered on their favorites among the 12 performing groups.
Those groups took Homecoming’s theme “Cocky for a Reason” to heart, showing off their best moves to dance mixes featuring the likes of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It,” old-school hits such as Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and, of course, Darude’s “Sandstorm.”
Jordan Batson, a third-year biology student and Delta Delta Delta’s team leader, said the team benefitted from its mix of men and women — and many of the women’s experience with dance.
“I’ve been dancing since I was 3, and we have three girls on the Carolina Dance Team,” Batson said.
Batson added that because tailback Marcus Lattimore is out for the season and USC has big football games coming up, it’s important now to “show school spirit.”
And it wasn’t just Batson’s team that showed support for the university and for Lattimore. Amid cheers from the audience, Kappa Delta sorority and Sigma Nu fraternity donned No. 21 jerseys and held up a sign for the player. Other organizations wore jerseys, too, and poked fun at competing teams in the Southeastern Conference.
The Dance Marathon morale team returned this year, performing the dances participants in the 24-hour annual charity dance philanthropy use throughout a long night of dancing.
Lora Garille, a third-year biology student and a member of the team, said she believes Spurs and Struts is an advantageous opportunity to get the word out about the organization.
“We want to get the campus as involved as we can,” Garille said.
After the teams finished their choreographed dance numbers and a panel of judges deliberated, a surprise performance from USC’s break-dance team Swype impressed the crowd with pop, locks, back flips and their version of the “Gangnam Style” dance.
Haley Carpenter, a second-year management and finance student and a member of Sigma Alpha Omega sorority, said she was impressed with the energy all of the organizations brought and how many people turned out to put on and support the event.
“It was such a great atmosphere because it brought all the organizations and students across campus together and kicked off Homecoming right with a positive, exciting energy,” Carpenter said.