Reading Time: 5 minutes To enjoy Chicago Stepping, trust is essential. It’s not just about trusting your dance partner; it’s about having faith in yourself. To learn and dedicate myself to stepping, I practice diligently at home and embrace every opportunity to dance with others. Experience built my confidence. I got comfortable touching different hands on the wood and…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Without a doubt, the stepper takeover of the fabulous Marriott Marquis in Downtown Atlanta Feb 22-26 heralded the return of The Heritage Ball 2024 to its hometown. Steppers were ready to return to stepping with our event hosts and friends from Good Deeds International (GDI). Believe me, steppers have been buzzing about this event all…
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s going down in Atlanta, Georgia, this week with the Heritage Ball, one of the most ostentatious steppers events on the East Coast – hosted and brought to you by Good Deeds International. Finally, the Heritage Ball returns to its hometown, Atlanta, in 2024 – the first time back where it was, as it was…
Reading Time: 11 minutes Delores King is from Chicago and has been stepping for 20-plus years. She launched the organization Livin’ Through the Lenz NP and has a message for the stepping community, but who is Delores King? Delores learned to dance, going out with friends like Sherrod four or five times a week. They learned to step together…
Reading Time: 4 minutes INSPIRATION: DO YOU KNOW A STEPPIN DJ THAT STEPS IGNITES OH SO SMOOTH RADIO DJ BATTLE I have heard many opinions lately from the stepping community about the music and the DJs. Who is playing the right music? Have we put Chicago DJs on a pedestal? All the DJs are playing the same music. Which…
Reading Time: 9 minutes INSPIRATION: THE WORLD’S LARGEST STEPPERS COMPETITION WEEKEND Walking away from the World’s Largest Steppers Competition (WLSC 2023) stage can be the most controversial part of the contest experience. The stepping community argues the results, people validate the accuracy of their predictions, contestants evaluate themselves and their performances, and we celebrate or vacillate the winners as…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Going to and learning in Donnie Davis’ class has been integral to my stepping journey. I have never lived in Chicago, but Donnie Davis’ class is where I go every so often to be in a class setting. It is the place for me to level set with Chicago, socialize, and meet other dancers who…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Whenever Pete Frazier announces the Walkers Category at any contest, he speaks directly to me. A hit dog does hollar. He says, “If you learn this dance called stepping, you must learn how to walk. That is a part of the original part of Chicago Stepping.” “Ouch!” I say every time. I am learning to…
Reading Time: 11 minutes INSPIRED BY: A Reader comment on A 2023 WLSC Prelim video, “Wait! Is that the same guy making all those reels on Facebook? He’s smooth.” Over the last six months, new videos of fashion fantastic from Rich Jackson have been lighting up my social media and showcasing another sliver of the stepper way of life. #dapper…
Reading Time: 8 minutes INSPIRATION: Stepper Set flyers that say “All Dance Styles are Welcome” and someone on the set asking me, “Why is he playing that music?” At the heart of our stepping community’s culture is the stepper set. On the stepper set, we meet other people who step, appreciate different but familiar music, celebrate ourselves, challenge and…
Reading Time: 3 minutes The stepping community mourns the passing of Willie “Casper” Perry and celebrates his life. The tremendous outpour of condolences and memories on social media from friends and family and on worldwide media showed the life of a Renaissance man. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote an obituary. He was an entertainer, stepper, skater, DJ and radio host,…
Reading Time: 8 minutes Inspired by: A brief conversation with Mzlucki Banks Chicago, “the Mecca,” sets the protocol for stepping. If anyone wants to know what Old Skool Stepping looks like, it should be clear when we watch contestants dancing in Chicago for the World’s Largest Steppers Competition. After the Last Chance Prelims in Chicago on Wednesday, July 24,…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Stepping revived my youthful love for instrumentals. I love to play around with the musicality of songs. When I hear an instrumental on the stepper set, I am out of my seat, ready to dance. I played the piano for several years, and instrumentals always take me back in time. The stepper set is the…
Reading Time: 7 minutes INSPIRATION: A CELEBRATION OF MY TEN YEARS OF KEEPING UP WITH THE WLSC Sometimes in blog interviews, I ask guests to flash forward and imagine what things might be like in ten years compared to today. I enjoy speculating and discussing opinions on how Stepping may evolve or change. Instead, I want to flashback as…
Reading Time: 6 minutes When I think of the World’s Largest Steppers Competition (WLSC) Contest Season, I think about a few things. What is next for the beginners from last year are going to do next? What will the Chicago Prelims look like? Who will win the money at Milwaukee’s Largest? Returning Winners from the 2022 Beginners Category The…
Reading Time: 5 minutes INSPIRATION: POST-PANDEMIC SENTIMENTS TOWARDS HOW LONG SHALL WE DANCE When I first blogged about steppers etiquette as it related to the number of songs we dance to, I was inspired by something Terrance Pratt said. At one of his forums, T Pratt surprised me when he mentioned that in earlier times, “back in the day”…
Reading Time: 18 minutes INSPIRED BY: “Let’s talk about event flyers and how they are perceived when designed by a professional instead of by an individual who created it using a PowerPoint slide. I’m thinking that at some point during your event promotional life, you should invest in a professionally designed flyer. Does flyer design matter?” – Jeffrey Clark,…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Women wearing high heels on the steppers set is a tradition and a way of life in the Chicago stepping fashion culture. On social media, we have beaten the topic of women wearing combat boots on the stepper set to a pulp. Let’s flip the script and talk about the tradition of high heels. Shoes…