INSPIRED BY: HONORING THE ORIGINAL IN BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2023
When it comes to Original Stepping in the lounges and on the dance floor today, Josiah is one of the first people I think of. If we dance, I can’t watch his feet. I have to listen to the music. Where is his count? Nowhere. What number is he on? It doesn’t matter, do me. Do I enjoy dancing with him when we dance? Yes, I love it. We go way back because he was among the first to challenge me to do more with my feet and go beyond the count.
Josiah Burt is from the Southside of Chicago, IL, and started stepping in 1972. He was introduced to Stepping by guys on the street corners and around the neighborhood, playing music and challenging each other. When he left home in 1980 for the military, he understood his love for Stepping because he could not do it while he was away.
“When I was learning, it was just something that we did as kids. We were dancing and then challenging each other so it became a part of our heritage and a part of our DNA. Stepping was something kids grew up doing basically and it just kept on growing and growing inside of us.”
Josiah
Describe what Man on Man or the Original style of Stepping is.
Stepping is a spinoff of the bop. You had the bop; then you had the new bop. We came in off the new bop because it was about footwork. Guys getting down and challenging each other. It looked slick, and it was cool. They looked cool while they were doing it, and that was intriguing to us. A lot of kids were getting into it.
How has stepping evolved from the time you started doing the Original compared to what we see it being executed as today?
In the evolution of this dance, women are more involved than they were before when we were coming up. Women were in it when we were coming up, but there were fewer than now.
The steps you take in the Original or the Get Down are the same steps you take in the eight-count. It’s just that most people can’t break it down and explain it to tell the difference between them. Even when you watch the video from 1983 at the Beverly House, the steps they’re taking and the moves they are doing, it was Original then, but dancing with women was a little slower. It’s the same exact steps. The battle steps were a little different than the 8-count because, in the steps that New School takes, the left foot lead is what we used more so as the start-up for the Original. The Original is six steps, so you can say it’s a six count.
Understand when you talk about basics, you’re talking about formats of different dances. Certain steps identify a different dance. If you see the basic steps of salsa, you know what dance it is. The basic for the swing out, you know what that is. If you see the basics from Chicago Stepping, you know the dance. The basic steps identify what type of dance you’re doing. When you see us doing the basic steps from the Original, that’s the Original.
We danced to the Jay Bees – James Brown when it was more of a battle. That’s kind of what started it. The same thing they do when skating. We did that back in the 70s. The James Brown songs, the bands from the 70s like Steely Dan, Steve Miller, you name it, the list goes on. We danced to all of that music back then. There were more live bands or band groups in the 70s, and that’s where that style developed.
And let me address this. The dance changed for us to be able to dance with women to make it more of a partner dance where you have the elegance of it and the “after six” look versus what it was then. Remember how break dancing was on the street corner, and you battled against a guy? We were the same way, and it was more of a battle dance then. We went from school to school, neighborhood to neighborhood, and battled the best guys.
What is your advice for anyone trying to learn Original Stepping today?
Learn it from somebody who knows how to teach it, and that was there back in the day firsthand to see it and know it. Because they are popular and know how to dance, someone teaching does not mean they are a good instructor that knows how to teach the Original. What many teach as the Original is tainted, and new steppers only learn bits and pieces here and there. People go to class now and do stuff in class, but they use a number system. They teach you how to count versus teaching you how to dance, and that is not how to learn the Original. Go to somebody who knows the dance, history, and how to explain it. Don’t go to somebody just because they’re popular in today’s dance; just because You Can Dance doesn’t mean you can necessarily teach.
Teaching Original Stepping
When you see people who teach, do you recognize them, or have they been recognized? Where are their students? Do you see them on videos, and are people talking about them? Everybody’s trying to teach, and they miss or are not teaching all the etiquette and things steppers need to know in the dance to do it. I have shown some people Old School, but I was not their teacher because they came to me already knowing the dance. There are two people I have taught from the ground up – Tracey Bivens and Trina from Alabama, but I did not finish with them.
Learning to Dance
I want the Original to be taught in its original format. Of course, we didn’t count back in the day. No kid learns to count when we learn how to dance. We copy and mimic what we see. We get up and do it. And when we try to learn something, we do it every day – wake up, go to sleep doing whatever with whatever to get the dance. Back in the day, we danced with grocery carts, with the door face, in the bathrooms at school, and competed with each other in the study hall and other schools every day. We danced everywhere to perfect the craft.
The Purpose of the Count in Stepping
You don’t have to count but need a system to teach people. When I say the system, I don’t mean a count system. You need a system to teach the dance. The count is for the teacher, not the students. It’s to ensure everybody stays in step, on the beat, and on time. It’s to make sure someone new is taking the right amount of steps. Teachers show the student how to do the dance steps and explain what the dance steps are – not sit on the 3, sit on the 5, or shake your hand on the 2. I don’t see any 2, 3, 5, or other numbers on the dance floor. Even when it comes to New School, having a complete basic dance should be no more than a year when you have the right person teaching you.
How do new steppers learn from someone like you, Josiah, because you do not commercialize yourself as an instructor like others?
I’m getting ready to commercialize myself. That’s why I went to Chicago to get some things working with a few people. I’m going to start teaching the Original so people can understand it and be able to teach it and understand all the components of it and the breakdown. The reason for that is to keep the dance going. There are a few people I’m trying to teach.
I want to teach enough and explain to them the breakdown of all the intricate parts of what they’re supposed to be doing in the dance, so they can develop and teach. I can’t keep going, and I am in my 60s. So, I won’t be able to keep going all the time, but I don’t want the dance to die. I don’t want to dilute it or anything, and I want to ensure the dance gets passed on correctly.
Is it difficult to learn, and why?
No, it is not difficult to learn. It’s easier to learn than New School because you have to learn so many different things from both sides. You both are learning the same things, but you have to learn the lead and the following component to it. When you learn Original, you learn both the lead and follow sides of the dance altogether.
What makes someone great at Original?
I think of three things to be great at Original – the great leads, the great followers, and then those who were Superstars that were great at both, like Ty Skippy, Lil Mike, Sarge, and Lil Alfred. They were so cold because they could lead and follow phenomenally. There are also Dynamic Duos like Gene and Barry, Butch and Dirk Parker, Tango Joe and Aardvark, Gerald and Shenard, Pickles and Kenny Mack, Fred Astaire and Dee Dee, and Wolf and Lil One – to name a few.
Do you believe the Man on Man style is a good fit for the WLSC?
It is, but you shouldn’t call it “Man on Man.” You shouldn’t call it man on man because women did this dance as well as we did. Why would you call it Man on Man if you got women doing it too? They’re not men. The Steppers Get Down is the best thing to call it in the contest. You can have a male category and a female category. Let guys battle guys and women battle women. If you mix between men and women, keep it in the Original category. However, in the Original, you might want to take out certain things, like some stunts, because you’re dancing with a woman.
A Weekend Course to Learn Original Stepping with Josiah Burt
I am teaching an 8-week course, but it can be done in 16 hours in 3 days to give you everything in the Original. In the workshop, I am going to give students everything in Original. Once I teach this to someone, if there is something I taught, and they forget or can’t remember exactly how to execute it, then all they need to do is video chat me, and I will explain it. But you don’t have to pay me again for it.
The Original is a great part of the dance. As a matter of fact, the Original Stepping is the lower part of the dance, while the New School is the upper half of the dance. Anybody, if you’re going to call it Stepping, this dance is from the feet and the heart. You have to do dance moves that go along with the spins and turns, but you have to be able to dance. You can do it as a partner dance, or you can do it in a battle. It totally is up to the individuals, but everybody should know how to do the Original in Stepping.
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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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LaVerne
Hello
I’m looking for a teacher/class in the DMV area.
Marilyn Ferrell
I, SOOOO WANT TO LEARN AND PERFECT THIS DANCE.