Keeping it Original Stepping with Lloyd from Chicago

INSPIRED BY: THE STEPPERS, YOUNG AND OLD, WHO KEEP IT ORIGINAL DESPITE THE EVOLUTION OF STEPPING

When I first started traveling to Chicago and witnessed Original Stepping on the set, one person that stood out for me on the dancefloor was Lloyd. He was young like me, but his dance was nothing like the eight-count I was learning. I admit that I thought twice about asking him to dance because I was not sure our styles would match. His feet were fast, and he used his hands a lot, but he was sharp and smooth with it. When learning Old School started to become popular in the New School age, Lloyd stood out as one of my peers on the stepping scene that was already Old School through and through. He stood out to me because of it.

Lloyd Johnson is from Chicago, Illinois. He had been stepping since about 2004 but spent many years watching. 

“I got the Westside and the Southside, so I got the jap and the snap. I have been stepping seriously since about 2004. Prior to that, I always had a knack for watching the dance growing up in the city. Stepping was something that I always took to because it looked so smooth. The music always drew me in and I was controlled by the music – Old School music in general. Coming up in Chicago, you have to know what Stepping is in some form of fashion. It was just in the air.” 

-Lloyd

How did you learn Original at a time when many people began to embrace and learn New School? 

For me, it started with music. I grew up listening to Old School music anyway. The Original style came naturally, and I aligned myself with some Original Old School steppers from back in the day, and we just became family oriented. It was all organic in how it played out. 

Why did you stick with Original Old School? 

I wouldn’t necessarily say I stuck with Original Old School. Everybody has a preference. So there’s nothing against “New School” because those are my peers. But Old School is my preference simply because of the music and how it intertwined with the lifestyle back in the day and how I was brought up into the present day. I frequented venues like the East of the Ryan, The 939 Club, which is also known as Brothers Palace, and the 4th Sunday sets Rose Wellington used to give at Mr. G’s. Those places I would normally go to get it in, and the vibe was different. 

In your opinion, what’s the difference between Original and New School? 

Most Original style steppers will not use the basic six and eight-step count. They will stick to a basic and do their thing, but you know they are still stepping. I must go back to the music that’s being played nowadays. In the steppers community, more New Schoolers are dancing off hip-hop, which was unheard of a while back. Those are just a few parallels. The music and the dance itself kind of separate the two but it’s bridging more so often than not. In my observation, I see more old timers coming to places like Hero’s. The Fifty Yard Line is a melting pot and a home for everybody. The style of dress is different too. The flare? Most New Schoolers have their swag. Old School has got their swag, but it’s all stepping. We are all family. 

How would you describe Man on Man to someone new to Stepping? 

Man on Man is simply two men getting together and displaying their talent amongst one another for those 3 to 6 minutes that the song is playing. Coexisting with each other is gangster and playerism. The music is what draws the fancy footwork, hand movement, and tricks that are done during that time span of the dance. It’s not the traditional dance of a man and woman. No two men can dance like that. It’s a movement, a structure, a vibe. As I said, it’s gangster. The music brings out everything in you at that moment.

The most common music to dance to in the Man on Man sequence is Jay Bees, but we got Donald Byrd too, and a lot of other music. Instrumentals, snares, base, and the BPMS are just going. Showing off your footwork and hand movement is Man on Man and how you coexist in one accord. Man on Man has been in Chicago since the early 70s and continues to the present day. There’s a bit of a discrepancy over the name – over the term – but we all know what it is. 

Tell us about women’s involvement in “Man on Man.” 

It’s a beautiful thing when women get out there and display their talent as much in the Man on Man Man – well Man-on-Woman category, which we refer to today as the Get Down. Again, it’s a certain type of music. It’s a certain tempo, and it’s Old School. It’s what they were doing on the blocks, in the basement, in the cafeterias at the high school, in the auditorium in between assemblies in various places throughout the city and Chicago. From the Low End to the West side to the hundreds over the East. Even up north and in the Cabrini Green area.

The dance spread like wildfire, so the women were always a part of it. Many women were in the shadows watching, and you had a handful of women that would get down anyway because they were not taking the backseat to no man. They were coming to the table to let everybody know. “Man, we get down too! We can do this just like y’all can.” It’s great that the women get in. It’s the flexibility within the stepping culture. 

Where are some of the best places in Chicago to see Original Stepping today? 

Today, you can go to Hollar Back Thursday at the Grand Ballroom. You can come to the Fifty Yard Line whenever there’s a set. Especially on the 2nd Sunday, you will have nothing but classical music, and you will see some of the best walking, bopping, and stepping that you have ever seen in your life. And even on a Saturday night, depending on who the DJ is, how they feel, and the tempo of the crowd, they might throw some of that good old Jay Bees on, some Donald Byrd, or something like that. We’re going to form our circle and line, and we’re going to do Man on Man and get down. We’ll get it in because that’s still Original, even at a big set, like Visions on Wednesdays.  

It’s hard not to go to a set in Chicago or anything casually during the week and not see any Original Style stepping. Simply because the music will never die. The music will always be there from 40-plus years ago, and it sounds just as good as it did when it came out. It sounds even better today. The steppers love that. Everybody doesn’t get it. You can’t get out there and do combination turns and turns with names to some of the songs from back in the day because you’re not going to do the music or yourself any justice.

You have to get out there and smooth it out and come back in. Pop, bap, dip, pow. You know my sound effects. You have to feel it, and that’s how it is. That’s anywhere in the city and the surrounding areas that play that music. It all starts with the music.  It’s going to be Old School, and it’s going to be some originality. You can’t get away from it. 

I’ve heard it said at least once that it is difficult to dance with you because you dance Original. Is that true, and how do you feel about that statement? 

You heard it said at least once, meaning it wasn’t a lot. My dance is Original like I say. It’s in the blood. It’s something that I was attracted to right away. Let me give you some background. I grew up crate digging, meaning going through my uncles’ records and those left at my grandmother’s house. She had a record player that still works so I would play her music, fishing for music. This was the music playing around me, and I turned myself on to a lot of stuff. That originality, the Original style, the old soul, and the Old School were embedded in me from birth. That’s the environment and what I was around and in. When I came into the stepping game, it went hand in hand. It was like it some may say to me, “It seems like you’ve been here before.”  

I would not say it isn’t easy to dance with me because I can adjust. I believe I can adjust. I’m going to make the dance as comfortable and as fun and relaxing for those five minutes we give each other on the dance floor. That’s my goal, so it won’t be an issue if we want to dance with each other again, no matter the song in the totality of it. Whoever says that needs to dance with me again. I mean, it’s just something that is in me. Old School is in my blood, and it’s just the way I carry on on the dance floor. 

What is your advice to anyone who wants to learn the Original Stepping today? 

Since now everything is being taught, my advice to anyone who wants to learn the Original style today is to be original. Be yourself. Even if you go to an instructor, always remember you, as the individual, are the only one who can carry out what it is you want to carry out on the dance floor. Be yourself, be original, and do you, but do it within the confines of Stepping. Don’t do you and get carried away and look clownish. Do you and be classy? And be original. And you know, keep it player at the same time – men and women alike – like you Sonji. 

What is your opinion on the Man on Man or Best in Best category at the World’s Largest Steppers Contest? And would you enter if they bring it back? 

That’s a good question. I don’t know if I would enter. It all depends. when you enter that category, you have to have the right partner for the synchronization. Everybody’s got to be in sequence. My opinion on testing out the category at the World’s Largest … Man, it was great! It was a showstopper. It’s something that brought the crowd to life. It was entertaining and something that was needed. A tribute to the late, great Tyrone Winfield, AKA TY Skippy. One of the coldest men on two feet and one of the best I have ever seen, and I say that with thirty echoes following behind that statement. How could you not? That was a tribute to one of the greatest, so it was all fitted, and they did him well. 

What evolution have you seen in Man on Man between when you started learning and now? 

When I first drew Interest in Man on Man and saw it in its purest form was at the East of the Ryan, I remember vividly who was doing it and how they were doing it. At that time, I was in the shadows, and  I was stepping, but I hadn’t quite mastered it. When I got involved in it, you worked out with others. People say we spar, we’re getting ready, and you gather different things. You take, and you add to your repertoire of dancing dance – footwork, hand movement, and timing.  

With me, I wanted more elements of the feet. I always heard you have fast feet. You got feet, but you have to tone and know when to bring that out. And why would you bring it out? You can’t just do it anytime, every time, all the time. It’s done in a proper perspective. It’s a certain rhythm done to a certain BPM. It’s done to certain music. And if you notice, sometimes you slow it down or speed it up. Have you ever noticed that?  

It’s a tempo. With me, it was about time and execution. That’s what I have been involved in over the years since I first started, which was a little over ten years ago. About 2012 is when I got deep off into it. Before I was getting my feet wet. I was watching, amazed, but I always had a funkiness as far as hand movement, style, and swag about it. When I started doing it in 2020, and now in 2023, it’s different. I’m comfortable, and that means a lot when you are comfortable. 

I was just like to say thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Thank you for letting me be one of the ones from this era who embrace this dance, and she will want to sit down this evening and interview. And now I’m here anytime you need it. Let’s keep stepping alive—Old School for life!