A stepper weekend trip to Chicago is incomplete unless it starts in the middle of the week with Work It Out Wednesday at Visions with The Davneys. This is one of the most popular weekly sets in Chicago that brings steppers of all ages and levels in the dance together on a single dance floor. It is packed every week, likely has a theme for attire and brings some of the best DJs out to entertain the crowd.
I started with Thursdays at the Blue Note when traveling to Chicago monthly. However, going into the pandemic and coming out of it, I learned about The Davneys set and can’t imagine visiting Chicago and missing a Wednesday. I have already lodged my friendly complaint with The Davneys that almost every out-of-towner I have spoken to takes extra PTO or another day off because Wednesday at Visions with the Davneys is a must.
So, how do the Davneys pull such a mixed crowd and keep their set successful? What about this set appeals to steppers to keep them coming back? I was surprised to find out that The Davneys set did not first start as Visions. I had to sit and talk with The Davneys, Mike and Dian, to get some answers and find out the magic behind the success of Work it Out Wednesdays in Chicago. Let’s find out what we can all learn from The Davneys.
Meet Mike and Dian Davney
Dian Davney was born in Mississippi but has been in Chicago all her life. She started being involved in our community around 1969 when she moved to 79th and Ridgeway when starting high school. Just being around those people made her love dancing. Dancing was in her home because she saw her Mom and Dad do the Swing, and they went out to many lounges and danced at home too. She was learning the dance at home from her parents.
“I fell in love with the dance because she was around boys and girls dancing – people in the community that loved the dance. They all loved it, so I loved it too.”
Dian
Mike Davney, originally from Chicago, was introduced to the bop in the early 60s. His family owned a record store. We had a jukebox in the store. It was a combination of a record and candy store in the neighborhood. The kids would put their dimes in the jukebox to listen to music. Mike naturally fell in love with the dance because it’s been natural, and he just loved music. Period.
“When you love music, you love to move to the music. That was about the coolest thing you could see – the older people moving so, so, so gracefully to the dance. I always loved seeing bopping and stepping any type of way, whether it was Fred Astaire or somebody else.”
Mike
What inspired you to start hosting your weekly stepper sets?
In 2016, when we thought about it, Mike and I went through all these places grocery shopping in the mall on 130th and Ashland. We found a club, Hot Shots, and investigated through the window to see how the club was. The owner came out and saw us, and brought us in. He had just opened the club; New Year was his first set. He was thinking and wanted to get people to know about his club and to get people in there. Mike started dancing on the floor because he had a good floor.
We got the same idea because we looked at each other. This is a good place to have a set, and we talked to the owner and his wife. We decided, OK, we can probably give a set here and get people in here to patronize. And that’s how it started. We went home and discussed the idea a little bit. The next day when I came home, I invited two other people to the club to look at it. And that’s how it started – to help somebody live.
What is the meaning behind the name Work it out Wednesdays?
Work it Out Wednesdays means whatever problem you have on the first part of the week when you come to the set on Wednesday and the dance floor, you can work it off and work it out. You can work out that stress if you are sitting up in a bad mood. We started with the name United We Step, but the DJ started saying work it out, so we made it work it out. Our slogan was United We Step, where young and old come together to dance. We aimed to get the New School and Old together in one room, enjoying the dance.
Why did you choose the venue, Visions?
Hot Shots was going to be closed. DJ Dan introduced us to Ray Smith, the club manager of Universal Entertainment Center at the time. That’s how we wound up here, and Universal became Visions.
What is special about a DJ for you to bring them to work it out Wednesday?
The whole object was to have a variety of DJs every week or different DJs every other week. We would have a house DJ, but we were going to always have a different DJ ever so often. So, if patrons didn’t like this DJ this week, they may like another DJ on a different week. We are trying to make sure everybody got a taste of the best.
You have increased my travel expenses to Chicago because instead of visiting Thursdays through Sundays anymore, I must plan to be in Chicago Wednesday through Sunday. And I know I am not the only one who said who says that.
How do you keep patrons coming back week after week, even the out-of-towners?
You can tell we have a vibe if you come to Work It Out Wednesday. A vibe so that everybody enjoys themself, and it doesn’t make a difference where your level of dance is. You see some people on the floor who don’t know everything. Some kick, kick, kick, cross, or whatever they can do, but they enjoy themselves, and everybody gets to dance.
Our set was not geared towards the out-of-towners that are coming in. It’s a Wednesday, and people have to go to work. It was just a blessing that the out-of-towners started showing up. I was amazed and, wow! They are driving up here on a Wednesday! It’s a blessing.
“Wednesdays at Work It Out Wednesdays is one of the best sets for out-of-towners now.
Sonji
You know what, we appreciate you saying that. Every time somebody says that, it makes us feel good. If you notice, we don’t introduce ourselves. We do not stop the party. The party isn’t about us. It’s about the people.
Every week you announce a different dress, theme, or color. Why do you do that?
If Mike had it every other week, we would do camouflage. I told him, “Look, I don’t wanna do camouflage. Can we do something else?” People ask us, “Why don’t you do “this” type of dress theme?” And we listen to them. We ask questions. If you like African, we do African. We listen to people. We try to. If we use your idea, you get in free for that week.
What are your challenges for keeping such a popular weekly set thriving and successful?
We don’t do a lot of plugging. We discovered that as a weekday set, you know about us by word of mouth and telling a friend, “Hey, we’re going to this set on Wednesday.” Like the 50 Yard Line. When have you seen a plugger with the 50 Yard Line on Saturday?
It’s like a member of the clubhouse where you know everybody comes up there on a specific day because it’s their club. We’re going to the club this week on this day.
We try to make it comfortable enough for you to come. We don’t expect you to go home, get dressed, and return. You can keep your uniform on. It’s a weekday. We want you to come and love to keep coming back up at Work It Out Wednesdays and party with us.
Do you have any challenges?
You know what? This might be one. It’s probably a little challenging for some people, but I always stay up in the front when you come in. The men are worse than the women; I have to say. Some of the men will come in and don’t want to pay and don’t want to put on a wristband. I put the wristband in place because, being in the front, I didn’t recognize many people.
Some people go out and come back in and say I already paid. I don’t know you. Think when about 10-15 people start saying the same thing, and I don’t know to keep track. So, the men are more apt to come in and go to the men’s washroom and sneak through the door. The women and not as bad. That was one of my challenges, so I started doing the wristband. Put your hand up, and yes, now I see you. Thank you.
Another challenge is while I’m staying up in the front, I still try and stay away from the front sometimes. I have a lot of people who will look at me and argue about paying because they’ve known us for so long. “Why I gotta pay?” To them, it’s not a business. The whole thing about the $5 is that you’re still not paying the $5. You pay, but you redeem your $5 at the bar. It’s like putting a drink on layaway. That’s all.
From one of your Facebook posts, I learned about your strict policy against fighting at your stepper’s set. “This person is banned forever (if I remember correctly).”
Why do you have such a strict policy? Sometimes parties ban offenders for a year or a certain time limit, but you said forever.
You know, that’s a scare tactic. Not naming names, a young lady was barred before the pandemic. Do you know how often she tried to come to Visions and get in? She felt so bad she could not get in because our set was hot. She wants to be where everybody is – the hot spot. Every week, she showed up asking, “I can’t come in yet? I ain’t gonna do it no more.” But, she constantly wound up doing the same thing – fighting.
I got to shake them up with our policy and realize I could not let her back in until her whole aura changed. I’ve let her back in this year, but it took half of the year before I decided to because I had to observe her to see where she was.
We don’t want to be known as the place where it’s okay to get to fighting and stuff, and people get hurt and we say forget it. Now you can come on to Work it Out Wednesdays; we don’t want any fighting. We don’t want anybody to be hurt.
What are you counting on from the steppers and the community?
We provide a place with parking, and you can park in a lot. We’re trying to make it safe for you to come and join us and dance and party talk to each other. Get to know people. That’s it.
One of the perks of Visions is that it is so convenient right off the expressway. Parking is tremendous. It’s the atmosphere when you come in. The food is great. Put all that together and a great dance floor. I personally try to make sure everybody is enjoying themselves and dancing. We are hands-on hosts but don’t try to be in everybody’s face and picture. We want you to come and have a good time. It doesn’t matter if you even know whose set it is. Some people still don’t know exactly even now whose set this is. The best compliment sometimes is when I hear somebody say, “Man, I like this set. I like it! I am coming back.” We already have birthdays booked right now all the way up to April.
My readers may appreciate and value knowing from you some tips to understand the Chicago secret to keep steppers supporting locally instead of depending on people traveling from other areas to support a set.
How do you create experiences like Work It Out Wednesday outside of Chicago? What are some pointers to recreate what you have going on there and keep it sustainable?
You must concentrate on your people and your town first. That’s the main key. You need that support to keep you moving forward, so you don’t have to count on out-of-towners to make your set successful. Give your people from your town a great experience, and know that the experience can grow and escalate to people from out of town coming in because they heard about the set.
Don’t rely on out-of-town support primarily. Because it’s out of town, think about who will jump on a plane to a place like Mississippi. Maybe you plan your set for a Friday, and then when it grows for people to travel to you and you get a big enough crowd going in your town, visitors can come to enjoy something on Friday and Saturday. You must cater to your town first.
Think about First Friday in Atlanta and First Saturdays there. First, there is Atlanta, then Chicago, and other cities and states. Concentrate on your state. When you can get it right in your state, you can focus on growing your set from outside your state. Don’t try and have Chicago come to make your state because what about the weather? If I can’t get on a plane right now to head from Chicago to your city, I will go right down the street to a local set.
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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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