Stepping out

By Kailey Pallares Staff Reporter

As you step into the auditorium, you are encased in darkness around you and the only source of light is projecting from glow sticks that were handed out. You hear the shuffle of footsteps and a mixture of voices chanting as the Gentlemen of Vision begin their performance. For many students in the crowd, this is a completely new experience for them, and they do not know what to expect. This February, students go their own chance to explore step, featuring a performance in the auditorium by a stepping team who visited FHC. The group features young black men in grades from elementary through high school, all from different schools in St. Louis. The team also let students come up and learn the dance style for themselves, creating a fun and interactive environment.

Stepping or step-dancing is a form of percussive dance that is deeply rooted into African-American culture. The participant’s entire body is used as an instrument to produce rhythms and sounds through a mixture of stomps, chants, and hand claps.

Although there isn’t a specific origin date, the dance can be traced back to early cultures in Africa. Pop culture’s impact on stepping has evolved the dance style and refreshed it in a more modernized way, being used in drill teams, churches, college, high schools, and more recently being shown in some viral Tik Toks.

Junior Zariya Robertson was one of the students who participated in their demonstration, and loved her experience learning and watching their performance.

“They let students come up on stage and learn some moves. We even had glow sticks since it was all dark in the auditorium. Their performance definitely shook FHC, nobody was expecting it.” Robertson said. “I think it was very important we had ths performance for Black History Month. Last year we had spirit week to celebrate the month, and I felt like they didn’t do as much this year for it, so the performance was nice to have. It was fun to see a different type of dance environment. They talked about HBCUs and different groups like that, and for someone like me that’s something I am very interested in.”

Senior Noah Gomes was also one of the attendees and participants of the performance, and he had similar thoughts when watching the performers spread their culture through dance.

“I had a lot of fun. The energy was great, and I had a lot of fun learning and participating on stage as well. For a lot of people in the crowd, stepping isn’t something that they’ve ever seen before in person.” Gomes said. “The performers educated us about stepping and gave us the background of it, and then they showed us their performance.” Gomes said.

Apart from many different schools across the country using this type of dance, more recently it has been making its appearance on social media, such as trending dances on Tiktok. A popular dance circling around features the song “Her Way” by PARTYNEXTDOOR, and it originated from a HBCU stepping performance from a majorette team. With almost three million videos being used with that dance and song, it has become one of the most popular dances as of late. But, many teenagers creating, watching and reposting these videos have no idea the origins behind it.