Iary and Delores’ Unique Approach to Stepaganza and the Final Chapter

PART 2

Did you achieve what you set out to do with Stepaganza?

I believe we succeeded. There were two things that I wanted to do with Stepaganza. I wanted to give the Stepping community an honor system because there are a lot of people standing in the shadows of Stepping that laid the foundation. They put bricks in the game but nobody knows who they are. I wanted to bring these people out to the forefront and let the people understand that Stepping has evolved from somewhere. Here is the evolution of the dance from these people. I am giving them a spotlight.

You would be surprised how much that touches someone. When you tell someone “You’ve been tapped to receive this award,” some people get emotional. They never would have thought Stepping back in the day would lead to them getting a lifetime achievement. We had two people cry at Stepaganza when they got the award. That is the impact we wanted and we wanted something that can be considered an expo – an amazing event that didn’t hurt people’s pockets. I think we accomplished those two things.

You mentioned the Lifetime Achievement Award, but what is the Most Loyal Supporter award?

For The Most Loyal Supporter Award, Delores and I like to honor the people that consistently come to Stepaganza. We want them to know we are watching everything that’s going on. When we constantly see the face of someone at Stepaganza we want to spotlight that face because they keep supporting us. The first person that got the award was Keisha Smith of North Carolina. She has been coming to Stepaganza from day one and never missed it. She inspired the award because we saw that she supported us all the time. After 3-4 years into Stepaganza, we created the award in her honor as a loyal customer. Delores and I decided we should do it annually and see who attends at least four years or more in a row consistently. We have two Most Loyal Supporter awards to give this year. It will be a surprise.

What are some of the event traditions for Stepaganza that you believe makes the event sell out every year?

The first thing is “You Can’t Be Free.” That makes it sell out. Second, everybody says for it to be such a large event it is still so personable and not a cold shoulder type of event. Everybody is so personable. It seems like a family reunion. And third is that we do so many other things to give people so many other options.

We don’t want to wear our guests out with just Stepping and workshops all weekend long. Introducing free bowling, the cookout, and a Pajama After Set is to keep the weekend diverse and interesting. We were doing the pajama party back in 2011 and we stopped it when we moved to the Convention Center. We didn’t know if the hotels would allow us to do pajama parties after sets, but this year they said we can do it since it will be our last one.

Now we are introducing a car show. During the pandemic, I was flipping through on the internet and I saw a car show and thought steppers never did a car show. I know they have some nice cars so we introduced the car show for this year. It’s just the additional things outside of Stepping that steppers like to do that make Stepaganza unique. And, they work.

For workshops at Stepaganza, what should we expect?

Delores and I discontinued the instruction workshops for two reasons. First, they were getting too monotonous. Because the workshops came with the event pass, the workshops were so big that the number of participants was dwarfing the instructor. When I observed the workshops the last time we hosted them in 2016 –17 it looked like a day party. Well, everyone was doing their own thing. We eliminated the workshops and instead hosted day parties all over the place and that is how the day parties came into play. Keith Hubbard was the first one that thought of day parties. A lot of people don’t know that he is the first one that started the idea of day parties.

We still do the etiquette workshop, and we have added the history workshop. Reggie Miles will be leading the history workshop this year. We made some changes with the DJ and promoter workshops and took those out of the equation because I am thinking about having a farewell speech. This Stepaganza Farewell Meetup is where I am going to be able to tell everybody how I enjoyed them and how much Delores and I appreciate their support. We want to let people get these stories in as well about Stepaganza. We are thinking about having something like that.

Is there anything you have intentionally excluded from Stepaganza to keep it successful?

VIP tables. We also tried to make it unique by placing seating around the dance floor. Everybody talks about that. We put chairs around the dancefloor because the parties have gotten so big. I knew that men won’t walk all the way to the edges of the event to find ladies to dance with. And, I didn’t want the ladies to come back and say we ain’t going to Stepaganza because we didn’t get one dance after we paid all this money. So, we decided to bring the ladies to the guys by putting chairs around the floor. That was a special touch.

If you can recall a year for Stepaganza that was exceptionally unforgettable for good or bad reasons, what year is it and why?

2011 Stepaganza. At the time we weren’t “You Can’t Beat Free” with the passes. Passes cost $100 per person and then you got everything free and it wasn’t connected to a hotel or anything. That year was the turning point for Stepaganza because it was the year I almost quit. It was our second year and I was doing everything that everybody else was doing – prepaid selling tickets, ticket agents, and all those things. The big shock for us was that people would shake my hand and say they were coming to Stepaganza – I guess being courteous. But 9 times out of 10 they didn’t show up.

In other words, we went all out with our expenses, but the income did not cover the expenses, so we fell way into the hole. Delores and I were able to dig ourselves out of the hole. At the time, we were giving the instructors five passes to sell to keep in their pockets. I mean they got $500 apiece and we paid for their hotel expenses. Well, that great idea did not work because a few of the instructors sold their passes but others did not sell them. I don’t know if it was intentional but I still had to pay them. I had told instructors that if they didn’t sell the five passes, we would pay for them and I had to make good on my promise.

Those payments took away budgeting for the next year 2012. When I was about to announce that Stepaganza was done, I got my income taxes and it was about $15,000. Oh my God, I didn’t have to make the announcement because we got our budget for the next year. That year was bad, but that’s the year that turned Stepaganza completely around. Then Delores and I decided we would put our own money up now and pay for everything in advance. We did not have to depend on one person to show up. At least all of our bills were paid. That was the bad side, but it was the most important thing that happened at Stepaganza because that turned us around. And that’s when we started discarding what everybody else was doing and how they were doing it and forged our own way.

Before, we were trying to fit in with how everybody else was doing. And then I said, “You know what Miss Delores, let us do us.” That’s why I posted that everybody wants to be a boss but ain’t nobody got boss money. Everybody wants to give you their opinions, once you change your events, to do this, and do that. But the boss, we have to deal with our reputation and our money being on the line. That’s why we changed a lot of things for Stepaganza. We decided we are going to rise doing it our way and if we fall, we are going to fall doing it our way. But, we are doing it our way.

What will be unforgettable about the final chapter for Stepaganza 2022 and do you have any surprises planned?

I believe that I got Cardell Harrington and Carmichael Musiclover to agree to do a versus, but this is not a versus where there is a challenge. This is how you can see a respectful counter where they respect each other’s art form. We are doing a positive spin on this versus so I got Cardell and Carmichael. The Versus should be on Friday night.

And, then I pulled another unique. Let me mention the musical artists that we have invited. We always try to grab somebody from the classic days. We have had Kenny Burke, Glenn Jones, and Bobby Hutton there. This year’s guests are going to be The Lost Generation. There are three songs that I want them to perform at Stepaganza. This is going to be a very nice turnout for the Final Chapter. I have one more special guest who said he wants to come, but I can’t mention him yet because I am waiting on a callback. Remember the Comedy Night and the live band? We also have all of this because Delores and I want to see the people happy. And you know what makes them happy? Getting there because they get those two free passes to enjoy all of it. How can anyone complain about that?

If someone was to step up as host after you and Delores, what are three important qualities they must have to sustain your success with Stepaganza?

First of all, they have to have a positive, great connection with the people. Stepaganza represents the past and the present actually. They must have a great connection with the past because the event is built on an honor system. For the Lifetime Achievement Award you have to be dancing or in the Stepping community for at least 30 years or more. That is a stipulation whether you have been dancing, promoting, or DJing. There’s always going to be a thing where the older folks are chosen because this is an honor system for the older community.

Second, you have to have deep pockets. To keep it on the level that it’s on right now, they have to be very connected with the community, particularly out of Chicago as well.

Third, they need a degree of humility because Stepaganza is for the people by the people of the people. That’s one of our invisible models whenever we set up something. We ask those three questions, is it for the people? Is it all about the people? Is it by the people? This last question means I take suggestions. We didn’t come up with bowling. The idea came about when Drewry Alexander and JB from Cincinnati were on Facebook talking about who was the best bowler. So, we added bowling to Stepaganza. Steppers don’t just step all the time. They have other interests besides stepping and I just want to bring those other interests in and put a stepping twist to it. We play stepping music at the bowling alley. Taking it to the old bowling alley, we got a stepping DJ out there and we bowled and we stepped.

This person has to be a service-related person. They must be a chameleon when it comes to people’s personalities. Do you know how many personalities I deal with all the time? But, the customer is always right. One day a guy left his badge at the hotel and said he was about to run and get it. We said, “No. Here’s another badge if you could promise to give us the badge back when you come through.” Do you know this guy came back with the badge? He said nobody else would have ever done that. A promoter would make him go for the ticket or he wouldn’t be able to get in. I said, “Man we need you on the way here. We won’t rip off of that.” So the person has to have some kind of humility and focus on service for the customer in everything they do.

What are some words of wisdom that you would want to share for any event, host, or promoter?

Be unique. You don’t have to follow the crowd. They say only dead fish go with the flow. If there is something that you think is going to be very beneficial and unique, do it. It’s like Stepping. The dance started out with everybody trying to be unique. They weren’t trying to look like everybody else. That’s what promoters should be doing. They should be like trying to figure out, “What can I do to make my event stand apart from everyone else’s and still be within the parameters of what the people like?”

How did your time hosting Stepaganza change you or help you realize about yourself?

You know it didn’t actually change me – Stepaganza or the Stepping community. I have always been a guy that doesn’t let things change me. I like to change the game. When I was a police officer for 29 years, I was always my own man. People can say police officers are aggressive, authoritative, and all that, but I was just me. I changed the police around me just being me. Well, that’s what I also did with Stepping. There are a lot of cold brothers and folks in Stepping. There are a lot of cold-hearted people stepping and just in this world, but I didn’t let the steppers change me. I want to change them. I want to change their attitude when it comes to how they deal with me.

Sometimes a person might not have to be having a good day and they come in and snap. Do I make them make me snap at them? No, because I don’t let what they do change me. You see, I’m saying it has no effect on how I am as a person. I think that’s what it was. In Stepping I came in and put my own personal footprint and did not let this game change me. I changed the game. I see how it has turned people’s personalities 180 degrees. That person came in nice and then became nutty or mean as hell. What I’m saying is Stepping has changed people.

Looking forward, I hope that you retired from hosting Stepaganza to focus on something else Stepping. What’s next for Iary?

First of all, I am going to share the reason I am retiring from Stepaganza. I have a lot of other things on my bucket list that I want to do. I’m 60 and I’ll be 61 years old this year. Tomorrow’s not promised. I’ve always wanted to go to Israel, to Jerusalem, to the Holy Land, and never got to do that. I have always wanted to take a 30-day cruise around the Mediterranean so I can be able to touch down on lands like Greece and Rome. Also, I want to visit Aruba. I want to go to the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the NBA championships.

For a long time, I have always wanted to do a festival. I haven’t been able to do that because of my work schedule and the Stepaganza schedule. As far as me promoting, I want to promote an outdoor festival of independent artists. That’s my goal. Independent artists and starving artists need some kind of vehicle to be able to call their own as well. I am going to leverage the “You Can’t Beat Free” program where people get a hotel room and get in the event for free. Or if they live in the city, the local price is going to be affordable enough so someone can enjoy the whole weekend without breaking the bank. The “You Can’t Beat Free” concept is going to follow me in whatever I do next.

How does hotel management react when you pitch the “You Can’t Beat Free” idea?

When I meet with the hotel directors and heads of staff or the hospitality staff they always say. “Why hasn’t anybody else ever thought of this? Why is nobody else doing this? This is a win-win-win, for the people who are the customers, for the hotel, and for the promoters.” Everybody is winning.

For Stepaganza the Crowne Plaza is sold out – that is 400 rooms not even counting the nights. When we say sold out, we sell out the whole hotel. We don’t sell out blocks. You will never see Stepaganza say we have hotel reservations open and then in the next two weeks it’s sold out. You can’t sell out an entire hotel that quickly. Other promoters are selling out blocks in the hotel. Stepaganza sells out the entire hotel. The Marriott is next. As a matter of fact, I had to meet with them because we had to get a third hotel.

Let’s sort of put some numbers to it. If I got 1,000 rooms sold, I get a rebate on every night that somebody stays in a hotel – every night. I make my investment back and the rest is gravy. This year, Sonji, we are going to have 2,000 nights sold. All this running around trying to sell tickets, having ticket agents, setting up CashApp, and all that stuff, we don’t have to do that. The hotel is our accountant and they cut us a check. How simple and easy is that? I’m trying to get people to understand this in the event promotion workshops. They are doing deals like this for everybody. Don’t be scared to ask for a deal. That’s why the customer is king.

A Closing Message from Iary Israel

I’m glad that we were able to give something back to the Stepping community that can have a lasting footprint in this history of Stepping. I am satisfied. We gave Stepaganza a 12-13 year run if you include the year of the pandemic. We have been in the game for 20 years and that’s enough and just a chapter in my life. I think people go through four chapters in life just like the seasons – winter, spring, summer, and fall. My spring was when I was off to high school growing up as a young man. Summer was from college, my athletic time, and having my job. Fall season was from job retirement at 60 and Stepping. I put my seasons in 20-year intervals because of life expectancy. I am entering my winter season and I want to enjoy all the things that I’ve laid down for retirement.

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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.

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