Stepping may seem like it is just an activity for fun in high schools, but it actually originated in the 1900s, when African Americans used it to communicate with one another. “It’s a way to tell stories through your movement,” said Arianna, one of the captains of the step team.
Stepping is an African American art form used in emphasizing a dancer’s footwork and use of their body to create sounds and rhythms.
Before stepping became a form of entertainment, African Americans used stepping to communicate with one another: stepping was created as a way for them to communicate in the face of danger. Step served as a sort of code for Black Americans to tell their story since speaking out was often too dangerous.
The black community working on railroads would step to keep up their morale and forget the pain of the hard labor that they were doing. The African gumboot dance, which originated in South Africa’s gold mines, is also thought to be a major influence on stepping.
In the 1960s, stepping became more popular with the incorporation of traditional African ritual dancing, tap and gymnastics. The term “stepping” became popular on the campuses of historically Black colleges and universities.
In the 1970s, stepping was a worldwide phenomenon that was performed by people of all ages in schools, churches, drill teams and more.
Ever since then, stepping has become a source of entertainment for everyone, not just for African Americans. Stepping is performed by a wide variety of groups, including fraternities and sororities, schools, churches, cheerleading squads, and drill teams. It’s a worldwide phenomenon that incorporates elements from many other artistic forms,including hip-hop, martial arts, acrobatics, and children’s games.
Fayetteville-Manlius High School has a step team. “Step is not dancing,” said Michelle, a member of the step team. “Dancing is all about the visuals. If someone is dancing and you’re turned around, you don’t know what they’re doing.” she explained, “step is not only visuals, step is the sound; step is creating music from nothing. Step is making noise when there’s no noise to be made,” she explained. “The rhythms created from our hands and feet speak for themselves,”Arianna said, also agreeing that step is separate from dance. “I feel like step is its own thing–separate from dance,”she said. “You can incorporate some dance in step but aside from that, it can be categorized as its own thing.”
At FM, there’s an activity fair –that happens once a year– that allows you to join any club you’re interested in, “I found out about stepping through the activity fair,” said Michelle. “It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. I’ve seen the dance team, I’ve seen the cheer team–but I haven’t seen step. I didn’t know the history at all.”
On the other hand, Arianna was informed about step through by a friend, “She informed me about the step club and encouraged me to join so I did,” she said. “I ended up really liking it.”
Many people join the step team to try something new or because it seemed interesting. Not everyone knows about the history of where it originated from. Arianna though wasn’t on the step team for entertainment, “I joined the step team because it was a way to get in touch with my black culture here at FM,” said Arianna. “It was fun for me to spend my time after school in a small but big community.” Arianna was looking to connect with her roots here at FM by joining a club which originated by Black Americans.
“We currently practice 9th period in the house 2 gym, every Tuesday and Friday,” Arianna said. Michelle likes having something to do so when she joined the team, “Step really stuck because everyone was super kind. We met twice a week so it gave me something to do,” she said. “The captains made every practice make me want to come back.”
“I like step because it’s almost a form of dance but you’re making sound,” Arianna said. “It’s a way to make sounds with your body instead of using music and instruments.”
“I like step because I love music. Step is like making music, and step is just rhythms,” Michelle said. “We do music steps and non-music steps–I find the no music steps very interesting.” She explained, “With music steps, you have a beat and your job is to follow and to add on and make that ebay interesting. But when there’s nothing–just bare silence, it’s up to you to fill the room up with your type of music.”
“The steps are never a team effort,” Michelle said, “It’s the captain’s job. They come up with a step and teach them to the group. For performances, if we know multiple steps, the captains might ask for the member’s opinions.” Arianna, being one of the step captains, is in charge of creating steps. “For me, sometimes in the middle of my day, I just get a birth of inspiration and feel the rhythm and start stepping,” she said. “Or I get inspiration for other step teams around the nation. Sometimes with music certain songs have a certain beat that are easy to step to which also helps the idea to flow more naturally.”
Most of the time, the step team picks their songs depending on their audience and what they listen to. “When we’re performing for the FM student body, we definitely think about our audience and what they’re listening to,” Michelle said. Michelle believes that the audience plays a big role in the music they pick but the step team does not pick the music for their audiences. “Songs are based on how easy they are to choreograph to. Sometimes we try to pick them based on the audience and what the student body likes,” Arianna said. “For certain events like Pink Out or pep rally, we try to do songs that the student body would know so they could become more hype.”
The step team would love to expand in size; the more people the better. “I would encourage more people to join step. I feel like step is not limited to a certain group of people but not everybody,” Arianna said, “I feel like people shy away from step because they might look at it and think it’s really complicated. But once you try it and keep doing it, it’s not as bad as people think it is.”
Even if you feel step can be scary, the step team is willing to help you no matter what makes you feel as comfortable as they can. The members of the step are looking forward to seeing more people try it out!
