Once I started stepping, over the years I have heard a lot about skating as it relates to stepping. Skaters who step have ridiculous flow. People step and skate to a lot of the same music. Some of the best steppers are skaters too. Wait! Was that a skate move or a stepping move?
Skating, like Chicago Stepping, is rooted in black culture as a part of family tradition in the mid-1980s and is at the heart of Chicago’s expression of art and creativity. We say Chicago is the Mecca of Stepping. Chicago is also the “Mecca for JB Skating.” Also in the news, skaters are taking a hold of the reins to tell their own story and to elevate the posture of black skate culture beyond Chicago. In my opinion, the last part of this story is an approach the stepping community can learn from. Still, why do so many people from Chicago know how to skate?”
“That’s like asking why a black boy played basketball? Skating is simply rooted as a part of Chicago culture and education. “
Undisclosed
A Little History about Skating and Stepping
Skating is poetry in motion like stepping when you see it. “Just like stepping, it can be addictive.” Back in the day at the skating rinks, you could see people off in the corner stepping. After skate stepper sets happened at hole-in-the-wall clubs. Some instructors even held classes at the roller rink as Snoopy King did at Markham. There is a crossover and strong commonality in music between skating and stepping. Seventy to eighty percent of the music heard at the rink was played at stepper sets.
Most of the steppers in the 80s were most likely also skaters because skating had the same beat and rhythm. “It’s the same type of music, just a different vibration.” Even now, most of today’s older steppers were skaters and still are. Back in the day at the Markham Roller Rink, which is still open today, there would be busloads of skaters arriving from the city for the Midnight Ramble.
“Skating and stepping highlight the creativity of the city of Chicago. People come to Chicago to participate. The energy to party and to fight has always been here. We are good people that don’t take no shit. It’s a part of who we are.”
Undisclosed
Maurice Turner on Rhythm, Style and Technique
Maurice Turner is from the Southside of Chicago and his current home city is Atlanta, Georgia. He’s skated and danced everywhere and has been stepping for 25-26 years since 1994-95. Between 1997 and 2004, he had nine wins in the WLSC and won the Masters in 2000 with partner Tina Moore. Maurice has been skating for 47 years. He started skating when he was only one year old. Most of his family skated and bopped back in the day and DJ’d. “If I was asked to choose between skating and stepping my answer would 100% be skating. On skates, I don’t have to have a partner. I can skate by myself. Don’t get me wrong though, I love stepping. I feel like God gave me a gift to step and to skate.”
When it comes to skating, I enjoy the movement and the ability to be free without restraints on my space. That’s the ability for me to escape from everything. Now, stepping provides some of that, but there are, to a certain degree, some restraints on the dance because we need to have some synchronization because you have a partner with you. You don’t want to be doing one thing over here while she has another thing going on over there. You want to have some uniformity in the dance with that person. Skating by myself I can do whatever I want to at any point in time. Still, what I love about stepping is that you have another person and you can create from one another’s energy feeling the chemistry.
Name two of your favorite songs that you skate and step to.
You Are The One by The Whispers – my favorite song. I love to skate backward to that and I love to step off of that too. Carmichael Musiclover’s – Chicago Style produced with Tim Jones. It has a nice flavor where I can get down skating and get down stepping.
How would you describe your style of skating and how has it influenced your dance personally?
If you are from Chicago, you know that there are different styles in areas. The Westside has a different style and the Southside has a different style. My style is more so the JB skater style which means I do a lot of footwork on my skates. Although I can transition into more of a consistent roll, with not as much footwork, and sometimes fast-paced rolls where you do Eagle spread types of turns throughout the floor or reverse direction also. If I was to lean towards a style I would lean towards JB style skating which gives me my own particular style when it comes to stepping. Even though there’s a lot of steppers that skate, there’s still not a lot of very, very good JB skaters that transition to stepping that can counterposition both. To me, that’s also what makes a difference in my style.
Can you explain for a non-skater the differences in skating styles you might see depending on the city or state?
I could touch on out of town and we do a lot out of town events as skaters. Even within Chicago, there are again different styles. There’s a Southside style and a Westside style just like in Stepping. We always go back and forth about this with each other. You know skaters and steppers. “From the Southside you’re more smooth” while the “Westside is more freestyle.” They do more flamboyant types of movement, while we’re more “keep it smooth” on the Southside.
JB Skating was formulated in Chicago. Stepping was formulated in Chicago. Once you get outside of Chicago, then it’s not really that they’re doing JB skating, although they have JB skating elsewhere. St. Louis has more of a bounce type of style where they do a lot of, let’s just say, R&B type dances on their skates. Detroit and Cleveland do more of a lot of glide and slide across the floor type of movement. You get down here in the South and everything is about a little dance on your skates. There’s not a lot of footwork like we do in Chicago. It’s more of getting around the floor and enjoying the bounce of the skates. That’s considered the difference.
That’s why there’s so much of a gap between skating JB compared to another style of skating because we do so much footwork when we’re skating. Turns footwork. Now, that can be translated into stepping as well, but you have to be on a high level to be able to incorporate them both. You also will see there are not many really good skaters that step on a high level as well. For whatever reason, some people think, because they can skate that they can transition easily to stepping. From the outside, you see someone who can skate and you think, “Man they can skate, I just know they can step.” That’s not always the case, but you can have some similarities. I believe the Majestic Gents is having a steppers skate party. If you have the chance you should go and there you will see some of the steppers that also skate.
Tell me some of the similarities between stepping and skating.
The movements of the glide, picking your feet up, and turning. I incorporate those in my stepping. A good example, if you’re doing an eagle spread or turn right on skates you have to pick your feet up and place them back down. If you’re doing a right turn when you’re stepping, the more rotation you get on your right foot, the further it takes you without speeding up. You just get around that particular space faster without necessarily speeding up because you get more rotation on your foot. So, if you can take that from skating and maneuver that to stepping, you will always be a little ahead of the person that’s leading you because you’re able to maneuver around without speeding up your rhythm and get there sooner than expected.
There seems to be a huge overlap between skating and stepping music. Why do you think that is?
Because of rhythm and timing, a lot of stepping and skating music has a consistent beat that you want to stay on and move to. Although that varies based on the type of skating that you do, there’s a lot of similarity in it because of that rhythm. Skaters always want that constant nice rhythm and pace so we can keep moving around the floor. Whereas when you are stepping you want that as well. Although they do have walking, there’s still nice rhythm and pace, but on skates, you don’t really want to be going that slow. If you get a moderate to up-tempo song on skates, that is good rhythm and timing for either skating or stepping.
How does flow in skating translate to flow in stepping?
For myself, flow is a consistent movement that frames either you and your skates or you and your partner. Flow allows creativity so when you’re talking about flow, you’re saying from one movement to another different movement. If you’re on skates and let’s just say you go to make a turn and you pick those skates up as you’re turning and you’re still moving – that’s flow! When you’re stepping, if you’re able to create your left or right turn, and when you come back to your beginning forward motion and there’s no hesitation there’s just a complete flow! There’s no stop and start. There is a flow to it. Those types of things allow you to continue in motion and also allow you to have flow and creativity because you have movements that are in congruency with one another.
What skills can someone learn in skating that can help to elevate them as a stepper?
Quite a few. In skating when we backpedal, this means you take your right foot and go behind the left as if you are going backward in a single file line or on a string per se. In skating, we call it a half step where you take one foot, and you pick it up from behind you and step over the opposite foot in front of you – all while on one foot at a time. What happens is you transition from one foot to the other. when the other foot comes up, it transitions to the other foot being planted. Those same types of movements you can take into stepping because you want to have a similar transition from one foot to the other. And, a similar transition from your body weight shifting from right to left. Those are balance techniques. Those are steps that allow you to go forward or let’s just say backward within a good rhythm and pace, but also within your means of skating or stepping.
One last example. If I have long legs and my first step Is longer, that’s my style. That’s my personality. How I take my first step, whether it be on your skates or stepping that’s how you create your own style because that’s how you walk. So if you take your regular movement and place it into stepping and skating, then you have your own personal characteristics and personality coming out in your stepping, or on your skates. And that also helps you learn how to transition those things from one to another.
Skating and stepping to me is a part of our black culture. It’s something that we did to relieve stress, something that we did to enjoy one another, something we did to come together and have a good time. Both of those things go hand in hand, and we do them exceptionally well.
Maurice Turner
Paris White Discusses Family, Tradition and Learning
Paris White is from Chicago born and raised and grew up on the Westside of Chicago. She’s a proud Westsider who has been stepping since about 2009. “I was introduced to stepping while skating at the rink. I was curious about this dance that’s in sync.” Ricky Harper showed her the eight count at the skating rink. Now skating, she was introduced to really by a mistake. At 17, she and a girlfriend used to go bowling all the time and one day all of the lanes were taken. “We had to figure out something else to do and decided to go skating. I went and put on those rental skates, and saw the people skating. Oh I have to learn how to do this. I fell in love immediately. The weird thing about it was that my biological father was a skater. “
“From what I understand, my father was cold-blooded on skates but I never knew. So then as I got into it, you know I found out about his skating. I convinced my mother to buy me $150 pair of skates – I don’t know how, but maybe you know because she already knew some of that history. The next week, I had my own skates and I was addicted. Someone told me, “Don’t worry about falling because when you fall if a person laughs at you, you know that they don’t know how to skate because real skaters know that in order to learn, you have to fall.” After he told me that I was falling all over the place because I was determined to learn. I wanted to skate like the guys and do the hard stuff.”
Paris is a member of JB Elite. She is a girl’s girl and pro-woman and loves healthy competition. Paris has traveled to many cities skating to compete against other women and winning. She also started a group COA, Center of Attention, for women who love crazy legging.
What do you enjoy the most about stepping and skating?
I say that skating is my baby and stepping is my stepchild, but I love them both – the unapologetic self-expression. With skating, all I need is the floor and that music. I get to make it whatever I want it to be. With skating and stepping, there is really a mental getaway. You really do get to get away from whatever you have going on in the world. It is your time and place to be wherever that song that music takes you. And I love it. Oftentimes, when I’m dancing and skating you will see me smiling. It is where I get to getaway. It’s my peace.
Do you skate more or do you step more?
Since being a Mom, I have had a little toddler that changed the game totally. As I’ve gotten older though, I definitely feel like I step more. With being a mom, the schedule and the time of day when those activities are available things have changed. As I’ve gotten older I frequent stepping a little more. I get to put my heels on and my dress and I get to be in my feminine fashionista space. I do that with skating as well, but it’s just a little more athletic. With skating, it’s a different feminine spin. When I’m skating it’s more like a workout.
Name two songs you enjoy that you can skate and step to.
I like Otis by Kanye and Jay-Z. It’s high energy and could get it in stepping and then skating. Dial Tone the Producer who has a hit song, One of These Days. I could just go forever and crazy leg to this song. I love the crazy leg. That’s my thing!
What similarities do you see between stepping and skating?
There is a freedom I have in skating. I can do what I wanna do how I wanna do it no matter the style – unapologetically. Whether a low shuffle or I’m gonna be sexy with it or I might be athletic with it and then well, I might slow it down or speed it up. That’s the same thing I could do with stepping. No matter the song’s tempo, I dictate the moves. It’s my mental getaway which is also why I had a policy I don’t date where I skate. It’s my sanctuary.
Also, the age range for skating and stepping is a vast range. They’re skating at 88. I mean I can say, from 2 to 92 literally. I feel like more and more young people are getting into stepping and skating, and it’s not so dated. As people are passing away if we don’t introduce traditions to the youth, that’s a big deal!
Describe your skating style and tell us if and how it has influenced your stepping style.
My skating style if I had to use one word – is fearless. I’ll try anything. When I stepped over into the stepping world, I wasn’t intimidated by the greats or the fact that you had “the heavy hitters.” Sometimes for some people, it can be intimidating. But I also know that with skating I remember the first time when I went to the rink with those brown skates on and I didn’t know what I was doing at all. With consistency and practice and time and the fact that I was tireless about it, I got better. You know everybody starts somewhere, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. I never forget that.
Once you put some time in, you’re only a beginner for a little while. I was like that with skating and went into stepping with the same mindset. It didn’t matter if I messed up. Remember, we all have to start somewhere. And, that is one thing – you have got to be careful how you treat the beginners because they will be the person you’ll be standing in line to dance with it one day.
Will you teach your daughter to skate or step first?
I’m kind of trying to show her both and see which one she gravitates towards. I’ve been doing the count with her since she was a baby and it worked for her to sleep when I put on Al Green, Simply Beautiful, and did the count. It worked like a charm every time when I need to calm her down. I play Al Green and Willie Hutch so that she knows music. She may someday wonder, why do I know that song? I want her to be able to know how to go and find the music to take her to whatever mental space she may need to go to. Recently, I took her skating to let her go again when she had more balance. I did a split. My niece who is 5 did a split. My daughter who is 3 was like “wait a minute. I could do that.” Then she did a split. After a while, she let my hand go.
I want this to be organic. I would like for her to do classes but I don’t want to be the person that initiates or kind of forces it. Sometimes parents or people when they have an emotional connection with who they teach, people get frustrated or act differently than when they’re not emotionally attached to the teacher. I want to put her in a class to let her get her foundation set and then Mommy can say, “let me show you something.”
Do you believe skating and stepping are important to black culture?
We already have identity issues in our culture or identity crises. We’re still trying to figure out where we’re from. Skating and stepping give us a sense of self, a sense of ownership. Sometimes, I will have to say to be honest, that when I see other cultures trying to do this thing, I kind of side-eye it. I feel territorial. This is our thing. I don’t want it to be watered down. I feel I have a Malcolm X stance. I’m not anti-anything, I’m just pro my thing.
What about skating helped make it easier for you to learn to step?
You need those thigh muscles and calf muscles together and as a skater, they are trained if you are transitioning without some breaks in between. Skating for a long time was my workout. Consistent skaters have well-developed legs, calf muscles, and their behind. If you go to the skating rink and you look at those women that “skate skate” you’re gonna see a similar build. You also use your core muscles a lot. I think that helps with gracefulness and transitions. Also, dancing on the balls of your feet. With skating, you have to know how to distribute your weight appropriately to execute a move. That’s a very hard thing to teach. It’s hard to explain to a person how to feel a move, how to distribute their weight in order to make the skate go this way. You can’t be lazy and you need your core muscles.
As much as you love skating, what are some things you get from stepping that are not a part of the skating experience or culture?
I get to go out in my cute dresses and my high heels and really simmer into my feminine energy. That is something that’s different. I get to curl my hair and depending on the month and how hot it is, be just as cute as I walked in. At the end of skating, I am a mess but I am okay with it because I burned a lot of calories. You know it doesn’t matter who I’m stepping with. As long as they know how to lead, it’s gonna be a good time so it doesn’t matter if he’s 21 or if he’s 61 – a woman or a man. Once I have a good lead, I’m singing my song and having a funky good time.
Protecting and Sharing the Legacy and Story of Black Skate Culture
Jeri Baskerville saw a problem and wanted to be and was able to be a part of the solution.
“I’ve only been skating for about 11-12 years, but I didn’t start getting into the black skate culture until I was in my early 40s. During the pandemic, it became evident to me there was a real coalescing effort to capitalize on the culture of the black roller skating community across the roller skating industry and beyond. However, there weren’t many; sometimes, there weren’t any black or brown faces engaged in those efforts. I didn’t want to see the black roller skating community left out of the conversation(s). It’s imperative to me for the youth to know the history, legacy, and power of those that carved out their space to skate. We have to do the work. I want to do the work, and this is just one of the areas I’m passionate about digging in to help create access, provide exposure, and protect this art form I love.
What did you see as the problem that this new partnership between USA Roller Sports and Culture Roll is going to fix?
The simple answer is access, exposure, protection, and ownership. The black roller skating culture talent is phenomenal — limitless, dynamic, creative, and innovative. Although that talent base has historically been contained to the recreational pastimes, we have a segment of our skating community who would love to take our art form, our roller skating styles, to the competitive level and take that to the top. Olympics, here we come! Competing at the highest amateur levels can lead to exposure from life experiences to product development to professional opportunities on a much larger scale.
If they want it, this brings our skaters out of the roller skating rinks and puts them on the world stage. Bringing black roller skating styles to the competitive space through Culture Roll can help the black skating community protect and maintain the authenticity and ownership of our roller skating styles. Culture Roll decided to partner with USARS to provide a competitive platform, especially for our youth, to show them an option for the future in roller skating. This partnership gives our community the autonomy to write the rules of engagement within our roller skating art form, carving out those critical objectives of protection and ownership.
Subscribe to Chicago Stepping News by eMail from Sonji
Welcome! I am the writer Sonji Stewart. These are my travel stories about my Chicago Stepping experiences, traveling from city to city to dance. I hope my stories encourage you to join me in the adventure.
Get the latest blog post by email because every stepper should be on this email list.
By clicking submit, you accept our terms & conditions. We do not share or sell your personal information.
