When Iary “Kat N Tha Hat” Israel announced that 2022 was the Final Chapter for the Stepaganza event in St. Louis, I had several questions. First, is it the right year to end Stepaganza during what seems to be a monstrous resurgence of Chicago Stepping post-pandemic? Second, has Iary Israel accomplished everything he set out to do with Stepaganza, and is someone taking over the event? Third, what was he going to do next? I sought him out with all my questions. To find out and understand where Iary is going and why I had to start with knowing where he started.
Iary Israel in Chicago
Iary Israel is originally from Southside Chicago, IL – born and raised. He was born in 1961 and he will be 61 years young this year. His family moved around the Southside of Chicago. He graduated from Harvard High School in 1979 and was on a basketball scholarship when he left for Southern Illinois University. At South Illinois University he majored in Mathematics and minored in Electrical Engineering. Then, somehow he ended up having a career in law enforcement for almost thirty years.
Iary grew up as an athlete. He was on the eighth-grade basketball team and then elevated to high school basketball and then into college. However, while growing up, his brother, Eric Sanders (R.I.P), was a phenomenal stepper before he passed and so Iary had a taste of Stepping through his brother’s experience. Because Eric was a great stepper they used to have stepping competitions all around and of course, they needed a DJ for music. Iary Israel was the DJ for their competitions.
He grew up around other icons in Stepping although none of them knew then the influence they would have on Chicago Stepping. Iary grew up on the 6600 block of Paulina and the 6600 block of Stewart. He did not know Kim Bowie and his family at the time, but Kim Bowie and his older siblings knew Iary’s sisters at the time. Being a young boy, he didn’t hang in those circles but grew up around Kim Bowie. He went to elementary school with Josiah Burt at Walter Reed Elementary School. Iary hung around the Stepping circles, especially in high school. Harper High and Lindblom had a rivalry. Lindblom was the rival high school down the street when it came to sports, baseball, basketball, football, and Stepping.
Iary Israel Moves from Chicago to St. Louis
Southern Illinois University is nine miles from St. Louis and was the reason for Iary to leave home in Chicago at the age of 18. There are two Southern Illinois Universities – one in Carbondale where they host a major Kappa Karnival. He attended Carbondale in his first year and then transferred over to the sister school Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He launched a career in law enforcement career in St. Louis and has been there ever since. He has not been back to Chicago as far as living there, but his mother is still there in the same house at 67th and Marquette Road. His sisters and family members are still in Chicago. He goes back often to see them. He has friends he grew up with and went to college with all still in Chicago.
Iary Israel Journeys Home to Learn to Step
“I did not really get into the Stepping World until 2000.”
Iary gravitated towards stepping out of necessity. He always went to the after-work network parties, what they called happy hours in those days. Here people got together after work until about 10:30 p.m. and then left, allowing the kids to take over. In about 1985, the influence of rap music was coming on strong and it was taking over clubs. Old school dusties were pretty much being pushed out and pushed aside with new music. That meant people like Iary who love the dusties were losing their music and also getting pushed aside and out of the clubs. Disco had come in and took over clubs in the 1980s and now rap during the time, 1985 – 87 was coming in and taking over the clubs.
Iary and his friend were trying to figure out what to do. They were losing the adult entertainment that they enjoyed that was nice and cool and mellow. And then the idea hit Iary.
“Wait a minute! I’m from Chicago. I know what I can get into and bring the Saint Louis area – Stepping!”
Iary had to journey back to Chicago, back home, since he was not a stepper. He had to go all way back home and then started his first classes to learn to step in 1999 with Donnie Davis and Stepping Herk.
As a laid-back introvert who shied away from individuals out in public, nobody knew him as he was learning to step. It took him five years to gain control of the dance and to come out on the dance floor. “Back in those days, you couldn’t just come out as a beginner like how they do now. They would not allow you on the floor back in those days. I didn’t want to be embarrassed.” That’s how I got into Stepping and that’s how I got Stepping into St. Louis. I started my own class in 2000. I always say 2000 because that is when I officially started teaching and promoting locally in St. Louis.
THE INTERVIEW – PART 1
When steppers hear Iary Israel we also think about etiquette. Why are you so focused on Stepping etiquette?
Well, I saw that there was not any focus on etiquette nationwide. I got the idea about etiquette from three individuals as I was doing research on the etiquette of the dance – Don Vic and Black Mary were both teaching etiquette. They had a website that taught and gave out etiquette instructions. And Larry Collins (R.I.P.) from Detroit had a program on etiquette that he would give his students.
I took all this information and went online and looked up dance etiquette. It is funny how you could just Google dance and get all these websites. I decided I was going to put together a program that caters to what I am doing. I was also frustrated because the men, the male students, wouldn’t get any love from the instructors. It seemed like instruction was really concentrated on the ladies. That to me is what is wrong with the dance now. We need to concentrate on the lead.
All the instructors were focused on teaching the women. The females’ elevation in the dance was swamping the males. I decided to do all-male boot camps at the time – not workshops. No one was using the word boot camp at the time. I always want to be unique with everything. I said I’m going to call mine a boot camp and I will bring all the men in like an army. This was an exclusive boot camp teaching the leaders the etiquette of the dance.
And I think what out-of-town groups should do is to invite instructors to their cities to host a series that teaches the four cornerstones of Stepping – they should teach the history of the dance in Chicago, the etiquette of the dance in Chicago, the dance, and the music. In my class, I taught on original music only because that music gives the dancers a certain kind of feel instead of just a monotone beat to count. I taught men to listen to the lyrics. The dance is supposed to change according to the lyrics and the tempo of the music. Some music has breaks in it.
All instructors should be teaching these four elements and it is not going to be taught within two hours on a weekend somewhere – the history, the etiquette, the music, and the dance.
With every retirement, there is undeniably something you might miss. What will you miss about hosting Stepaganza?
The smiles on the people’s faces. You know what? That’s the one thing that I used that kept me going all the time when they came to Saint Louis. When people came to Stepaganza and they were smiling from the time they arrived until the time they left. And that’s what I’m gonna miss. I’m gonna miss all of those unique relationships that I had over the years with the steppers and all the history. I just wanted people to have a great time. And I’m the type of person, I want anybody and everybody to walk out of Stepaganza and say, “You know what, I feel like I got my money’s worth!”
Although it’s our final one and we said our final one, everybody is beating me and Delores over the head about it. I mean we are getting calls from everybody that is important in the game. They tell me that Stepaganza is the only party that they can come to where they can feel right at home. And you know what I’m talking about – with the old school. They say we can’t go to Heritage Ball. They don’t cater to us. We can’t go to The World’s Largest Contest. They don’t even see us. We can’t go to Black and Bling. They don’t cater to us. But, we can come to you because you all still feel like a Chicago thing.
Now, that’s another reason why I did the pajama after-party – to also attract the younger folks. TykMan and Candy Man can play the younger music from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. By that time in the morning, guess who is asleep? The legends. We are all asleep but the party keeps going. Go to the after-party and you could see all the young people.
How did you come up with the idea of Stepaganza?
There were different intervals between the process of Stepaganza and You Can’t Beat Free, but this is how the process started. I was at a party at a weekend event of Geno’s in Dallas. I was already a local and regional promoter in St Louis but I had not come on the national Stepping. Geno and I had hooked up. It was a four-city partnership – Memphis (Stephanie Holloman and April), Saint Louis (Me and Deloris). Los Angeles (Tracy and LA Rodney), and Dallas (Geno Spears). We always promised to visit each other’s events throughout the year.
SEEING A PROBLEM
I happened to be in Dallas when two men were out in the lobby where Geno’s party was being held. Geno did not know who these guys were. This is the reason why history is important. These guys were LA Chase and Tabu. They were fuming and frustrated. It seems trivial now, but they were feeling frustrated that the promoter didn’t know who they were and wanted to charge them to get in when they were considered legends in the dance. As I walked by, I heard them going back and forth. I stopped and I asked them to share some of their history. After our conversation, I came to the conclusion that maybe there needs to be an honor system because there’s no honor system in Stepping. I asked them for their numbers and said let me think about something and give me a couple of weeks.
FINDING A SOLUTION
As I was brainstorming, The Soul Train Music Awards came on and I figured it out. That’s what I’m going to do – an award weekend and that’s how I came up with the idea for Stepaganza. I was going to use A Stepping Extravaganza. I was always told if you want to make an impression and be unique use a one-word name. Most superstar events and most superstar artists are known by what I recognize as one name. Jordan you know is Michael Jordan, Prince. When someone says Michael you know it’s Michael Jackson. I needed my event to have one name. People don’t have to say The World’s Largest Steppers Contest or The Heritage Ball. Stepaganza flowed as one name. That’s how it came about.
COLLABORATING WITH LIKE MINDS
The next year I met Gucci out of Chicago. He already had an honor system for the steppers as he was giving out certificates to the stepper. So we got together and basically realized we were doing the same thing. Gucci decided that he would join Stepaganza so we could do it together. Gucci, Tabu, and down the line Woodie McNeal, and Keith Hubbard – all of them were important in the formulation of Stepaganza with me and Delores Mitchell.
GETTING EVERYONE INVOLVED
Keith connected me with Woodie McNeal and she is the MC for the award show and gives all the monologues. She and Sam Chatman make the perfect team because they all know the history of this dance and they started giving me nominations. Tabu, Chase, and Keith gave me all these nominations, and then after some time, the committee grew to be made up of everyone who has already gotten an award. The committee gives nominations on who they think should get awards the following year.
Where did the slogan “You Can’t Beat Free” come from?
You Can’t Beat Free. Now not too many people know this and since I am giving you the real truth about “You Can’t Be Free” I will tell you, but this is likely going to upset some folks. We started Stepaganza in 2010. That was our first one. Around 2012 we had built up to about 800 folks attending the event. Our event first started in April. Pete Frazier and the Majestic Gents were doing a steppers convention in Miami at the time. It started in 2007 and went on for 2008, 2009, and so forth. They had Memorial Day weekend in Miami. I really wanted Memorial Day, but Delores and I didn’t want to coincide with the event so we moved to the side and had Stepaganza in April.
ACTING ON OPPORTUNITY
Pete Frazier ended the Memorial Day weekend event and May was left open. Nobody was using it so I pushed Stepaganza to Memorial Day weekend. However. a group with LA Chase, Geno Spears, Walter Lane, VIP Productions, and Stylistic Steppers with Drew Smith (R.I.P.) all got together. They decided to throw a party down in New Orleans on Memorial Day. Everyone approached me asking why they would do that knowing particularly that I had Memorial Day Weekend.
FACING THE CHALLENGE
I discussed the situation with Delores and we decided we had to do something unique to get the people to come to our event. We knew that collectively those guys had a stronger base than we did. You Can’t Be Free was really a rallying cry to the competition. “Yeah OK, you guys wanna come on Memorial Day? Well, beat free ’cause we are going free now in 2012.” They dissolved the group after the first year because I heard that they couldn’t keep up with free.
FOCUSING ON THE CUSTOMER
Then I changed our rallying cry from being directed towards the competition to making it a motto for Stepaganza focused on just the people. Now the mantra meant “Hey come on down. You Can’t Beat Free!” I changed the focus. It originally started as a battle cry over competition trying to get on my event date.
How does You Can’t Be Free work?
How “You Can’t Be Free” works is that it focuses on the customers not paying us directly. We thought of a way for the hotel to pay us your admission to Stepaganza. We went back door and got rebates on every room. That’s why I went all across the country. I wasn’t selling tickets. We don’t sell tickets. We sell rooms and rooms give us our pay. The rooms get us our pay from the hotel. We eliminated the need for ticket agents. Delores and I were trying to be unique.
At this point, we’re going to take a break so you can take PART 1 all in. Get ready for PART 2 where Iary shares what is in store for Stepaganza 2022 The Final Chapter and tells us more about the gems behind the success of Stepaganza. Stay tuned!