Students within the College of Business consider themselves dedicated and driven. Along with the school work that makes them some of the top business students in the country, they also participate in affiliated organizations and philanthropic activities.

This weekend, students will add dance cues and song mash-ups to their agenda. Six business organizations will compete in the College of Business Best Dance Crew competition in Gregory Hall this Sunday, March 10.

This year is the first for Best Dance Crew and its founders, Kyle Alden and Emily Golin, both sophomores in Business. They said the event will bring the business organizations together to cheerfully showcase their finest dance moves in an effort to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House.

Alden and Golin are also members of Business Council, which facilitates events and communicates with the business world on campus. While the Business Council already planned a spring charity event, Alden said the Council wanted an additional fundraiser earlier in the semester. Golin said Best Dance Crew is their solution.

“Over winter break, we came up with ideas for the event that it would be annual and involve as many organizations as possible,” Golin said. “We wanted something that would be fun for people to both participate in and watch since we can have more people involved that way. And who doesn’t want to watch their friends on stage doing funny dance moves?”

Of the six organizations, Alden and Golin reached out to four business fraternities — Phi Gamma Nu, Delta Sigma Pi, Alpha Kappa Psi and Phi Chi Theta — and members in Business Council and the entrepreneurial organization Enactus to compete in Best Dance Crew. One dance group will represent each organization during the competition.

Illini ’N’ Motion, a student dance troupe, will play an integral role in Best Dance Crew as well. Members from the troupe provide assistance to the groups as they prepare for their performances in Gregory Hall.

“One of our concerns was if each group would have dancers with some experience,” Alden said. “Illini ’N’ Motion are helping them (to) choreograph their dances plus other help and advice.”

But Illini ’N’ Motion said they do not want to dictate the performances. Carissa Dieckman, a member of Illini ’N’ Motion and a freshman in Business, is assigned to Alpha Kappa Psi’s dance group and said her experience with the fraternity has been collaborative.

“We just want to make sure that everyone’s having fun,” Dieckman said. “A lot of us have ideas so we’re mixing them all together, and we’re taking it as it goes to see what we need to do. But everyone in the groups say they’re enjoying it.”

When asked how challenging Best Dance Crew has been for them, Golin and Alden both laugh. They sum it up: lots and lots of emails. Golin said they need to stay in constant contact with the six participating organizations so the event will run smoothly.

“Literally, we are glued to our computers, communicating back and forth with everyone and figuring out logistics,” Golin said. “All six organizations are extremely busy and have their own schedules, and finding those dates that would all work has been very difficult. You don’t know how many details go into an event until you start planning it yourself.”

Golin and Alden joke that they would start planning the summer before if given the chance to start all over, but they are happy with the organizations’ enthusiasm for Best Dance Crew. 

Kieran Brennan, the external chair of Alpha Kappa Psi and senior in Business, said the competition is personal for him. He views Best Dance Crew as his swan song for the University since he is a second-semester senior, and hopes for his fraternity brothers to participate together in something new.

“Best Dance Crew will be good for brotherhood in terms of the pledge class mingling with board members, and I’m excited to spend time with some of our younger members,” Brennan said. “We’re all excited to participate because this is something for a good cause and AKPsi focuses on philanthropic outreach.”

Alden said the organizations are keen to be contenders in the competition, but also happy to support Best Dance Crew’s charity efforts. 

Tickets to the competition are $5, and all proceeds for the Ronald McDonald House will support families struggling financially with health care. 

Best Dance Crew will take place in the 112 auditorium in Gregory Hall Sunday at 7 p.m. Golin and Alden said they hope anyone at the University will come, either for a good cause or to see funny dance moves.

Adlai can be reached at [email protected].