Stepping

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Wed Feb 20, 2002 11:48 pm

Song, dance celebrates cultural history at Potomac Falls By Kristie Little for The Loudoun Times-Mirror Black History Month was more than a date on the calendar at Potomac Falls High School, in Sterling, this year. It was a celebration that asked students to "open your eyes," the theme of the event. Held Feb. 14 and 15 at the school, the program not only celebrated African-American culture in the United States, but also the cultures of all students who attend the high school. The curtain drew back on a classroom filled with kids banging on desks and trash cans to start a beat. Once the bell rang, the Step Team performed first. Stepping is a percussive form of dancing that arose on college campuses, according to Jamie Braxton, Step team coach and a teacher from Seneca Ridge Middle School in Sterling.Stepping has "filtered down from the college level," and Braxton is happy to teach it to high school students because "it's a part of African-American culture and it belongs [in high school]," she said.<A HREF="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=3320058&BRD=1897&PAG=461&dept_id=123365&rfi=6" TARGET=_blank>click for more</A>

LMCtech · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:46 pm

From the San Jose Mercury News.

Quote:

Dance troupe steps into rhythmic artistry

By Danielle Samaniego

Knight Ridder

When done right, it's fluid in rhythm and style.

Members line up in formation. A call is yelled out, kick-starting a cadence created by the motions of hands and feet. Claps and foot taps come together in percussion as everyone begins to feed off each other's rhythm, listening for the right tempo while holding their own.

Throw in rotations and transitions and you can feel the heat coming off of palms and feet from constant pounding. This is the performance art known as stepping, and the students at Pittsburg High School are falling into step.

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ncgnet · **Joined:** Sun Oct 27, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 1845

From Vanessa E. Jones in the Boston Globe:

Quote:

Stepping it up
A ‘20s black frat dance is being revived in schoolyards, churches, and in a new movie

....
No one’s sure when stepping began. The first written reference to it probably occurred in a 1925 Howard University student newspaper article describing the “Hell Week” activities of two fraternities, according to the book “Soulstepping: African American Step Shows .
....
Although many of today’s steppers trace the origins of their moves to South African gumboot dancing, the book “Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance “ suggests more multifaceted cultural roots.

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