This interview was inspired by questions from steppers about starting stepping communities outside of Chicago – many miles away from the Midwest. I reached out to Denise and Sharvin in North Carolina for answers. Denise McRae is the founder of Capital City Steppers(CCS) in North Carolina and she shares her success story of community building. I hope this story can inspire individuals and organizations with questions and aspirations for building new Chicago Stepping communities. It can be done. Stepping communities can flourish outside of the Midwest with the right approach and talent, and integrity.
Denise McRae was introduced to Chicago Stepping while visiting Dallas, Texas, and attending a dance event in early 2008. It was primarily a Texas Swing Out event, but there was some stepping involved. She also attended a stepping class during her visit. The event and the steppers class that she attended in Dallas piqued her curiosity to research the dance. After watching YouTube videos and continuing conversations with the Dallas, Texas instructor, David Joyce, she wanted to share the excitement of her experience in the dance with family and friends.
“I was absolutely intrigued by the elegance, the style, the class of the dance and the event all together. Although it was a very short weekend it left a lasting impression on me, so I wanted to share it. ”
Denise McRae
Denise was still living in Florida and after researching and learning a little bit more about stepping, she called her daughter Roslyn Brown, who is the co-founder. She told her daughter about what she had experienced and wanted to know if she could get at least 20 people together to do a workshop. They held their first workshop with a set after on Memorial Day weekend 2008 in Raleigh. Erika Little and David Joyce were the instructors.
What is the mission and vision for Capital City Steppers?
Our mission and vision actually came after we had been engaged for a couple of years. At first, we just got together and loved the dance and wanted to learn, but the mission and the vision formulation came about after we had embraced the dance. I wanted to make sure that we shared the dance. Our mission is dedicated to promoting the African American culture through the beauty of a couples dance called Chicago Stepping. We believe Chicago Stepping celebrates individual expression. We believe it illuminates an artistic collaboration and empowers our community and society by demonstrating an infinite possibility of communication for a cultural understanding.
Our vision is to be a leading dance organization promoting Chicago stepping by providing instruction that preserves the integrity of the dance and contributes to its future in North Carolina.
In support of that mission and vision, what are some of the activities that Capital City Steppers does to promote and bring that idea to life?
Primarily CCS conducts Chicago Stepping dance classes. We do workshops and events. Also, we provide community service to non-profit organizations by contributing our time, services, and our financial support. We also award annually our Founders Educational Scholarship to North Carolina high school seniors who will be attending accredited institutions of higher learning. CCS started the Founders Scholarship in 2015. To date, we have contributed to North Carolina seniors going to college upwards of $15,000.
What led you to believe the time was right and that you had the resources and support needed to establish Capital City Steppers?
After our first workshop and stepper set, the amount of interest and enthusiasm was encouraging. I just felt that we needed to keep it going. And quite honestly, faith is what inspired me to establish the group. I believe that Chicago Stepping is a cultural expression that could be used to positively bring people together. Also, I believe the love, honesty, and mutual respect our group had for each other was kind of rare and we needed to share that with other people. I was inspired by the commitment and enthusiasm the group members had to learn the dance. To show up each week for weekly classes, workshops, and community services projects. It was just beautiful to see.
Our group members actually provided the talent, the support, and the willingness to embrace and invest in my vision. We’ve always had an amazingly gifted group of people that aligned themselves with Capital City Steppers and they unselfishly lend their talents to make sure that CCS is the best that it can be. With that being said, the rest is history.
What did you go into this venture believing were critical for this group to thrive and be long-standing?
The first thing for me was love and respect for the dance and to love each other and respect each other. Loving and respecting the integrity of the dance. When we engaged or encountered people to be our very best, and showing our very best to show them how we loved each other and loved to dance. Hopefully causing that to become infectious. That was what I hoped to accomplish.
What do you believe were factors for your success?
Our members, their supporters primarily. Every time we came together and I say this … as a lot of people would always ask us, “How do you stay together? You all seem like you like each other.” We did. We genuinely like and love each other. So, when we came together it was easy for us to carry out our mission or our events. Everybody was just willing and ready to do their part. Everyone had a role to play and everyone stayed in their lane and did their part.
Looking at what is happening today. Are there new advantages or disadvantages for any community to establish a new steppers group?
I believe that the advantage is always going to be that there will always be an audience and an opportunity to introduce the dance to those who’ve never heard of Chicago Stepping. Or, if they’ve heard of it, they just are curious and want to delve into learning. That’s going to always be the advantage.
The disadvantage, in my opinion, is there are now a plethora of classes and instructors who may not be as equipped or interested in teaching sound fundamentals and teaching the history and etiquette of the dance. So many students may not receive the dance in its purest form, and that’s a disadvantage. Many students also may not want to put in the time and effort required to progress in the dance. It does take time, patience, and effort to learn the dance and learn it found from sound fundamentals. I think that those are the disadvantages.
In Dominique Tolliver’s interview with livingthe8count, she said, “There’s no way of getting around the Mecca.” when I asked, “do stepping communities outside of Chicago have a responsibility to Chicago?”
Did you factor in Chicago in your plan for Capital City Steppers? And if yes, how?
Absolutely we did. It was important to me that we embraced Chicago Stepping with integrity. From the beginning, I was intentional to bring in instructors from Chicago. I wanted CCS to learn the history, etiquette, basics, and foundation of the dance from people who lived the dance. We, very early on, connected with Chicago steppers such as Sisters in Sync, Charnice Simmons, Monique Caldwell, and Cheryl Sugarfoot Powe, Deon Farr, Melanie Fields, and Sharon Bolden. They were my go-to mentors.
Royce Banks, Angie Faine, and Keith Hubbard. Keith is like a big brother. Rick ‘Tall Rick’ Witherspoon and Dominique Robinson. These were people that poured into us from the beginning. We held six-week boot camps with Cheryl and Rick. They drilled us in fundamentals and Keith Hubbard with etiquette and history. It was important that we kept the integrity and just didn’t fly off and do something just because I wanted to do something. I wanted to be integrous with this dance.
How did you attract local interests for Capital City Steppers to grow?
Initially, it was about word of mouth and mutual relationships. As I stated before, I was living in Florida when we started in 2008. So Ros, my daughter – the Co-Founder – and Erika Little, who moved to Raleigh three months after we had that first workshop, became our resident instructors. Sharvin Whitted I think came along around two or three months later. They were the local engines for keeping the momentum going.
When we started I put out flyers. We created a Facebook page and put out information that way. For our first event and a few times afterward, I invested in a radio spot on Raleigh’s local R&B station and we got a lot of support from people listening and hearing about Chicago Stepping. By that time, we had R Kelly coming out with stepping in the name of love and everybody was wanting to know more. They saw that video and wanted to learn. Little did they know, they weren’t getting ready to learn what they saw. But that was how we got the word out and attracted local interests.
I also connected with others in North Carolina who were already stepping up, such as Tawanna Archia in Winston, Salem. I had a conversation with Tawanna and everyone was very supportive. Keisha Smith and others in Greensboro and in Raleigh – Dina and Greg Morisson. They were already getting together with other couples on Fridays and stepping at TJ’s. I had a conversation with them and everybody was supportive. We just came together and that helped Chicago Stepping to grow in North Carolina.
I know sometimes the journey isn’t always easy.
Tell us about a hiccup or missed step in your plan that you can share and how you recovered.
I don’t know if I would characterize this as a hiccup, but from time to time we have had several members from the beginning who actually moved away out of the area or decided to step away from the dance. That was the time of readjustment, but we were able to regroup. We had other interested people who just came right in and picked up where some of those people left off.
The other hiccup – from time to time could be from a financial standpoint. When you’re planning events and putting together workshops, the support of other steppers and keeping other dancers and people interested is very important in order to financially sustain yourself. Sometimes we’ve had times when we came up short, but I personally would always make sure that whenever needed I would step up to the plate. The group always made sure that they made me whole again and that’s how we get over some of those hiccups.
Is Capital City Steppers what you imagined it would be today in 2021?
Pre-pandemic, yes, absolutely! It’s kind of exceeded my expectations, to be honest. I saw a lot of possibilities from the events that I’ve attended and seeing what goes on in Chicago. For North Carolina, which is not necessarily a stepping community state, I think that it exceeded my expectations from what we have been able to accomplish.
Yes, absolutely pre-pandemic yes! The pandemic has presented challenges for us. It’s important for us that everyone is comfortable coming together and gathering. So, our priority is safety first. We are taking our time to make sure everyone feels comfortable before we openly engage again.
Talking to the President of Capital City Steppers
Sharvin Whitted started stepping in roughly 2008 and placed third in the 2009 World’s Largest Steppers Contest Beginner’s category. He shares how he was introduced to Stepping.
“At the time, I was looking for something a little different and I wasn’t really into the club scene as much. I was at a different stage in life and when Chicago Stepping got introduced to me, it just fell into place and made sense. It fit because there was a maturity, something a little more sophisticated and adult about Stepping than just partying.”
Sharvin Whitted
Sharvin is the current President on the board for Capital City Steppers and he has a two-year term. To note, It is possible for someone to have multiple terms.
What are your responsibilities as President and which do you consider the most rewarding?
The most rewarding part of being the President for me is getting to the point where I’ve been fully invested in the group – to reach the point where I can become the President. In addition to becoming one of the lead instructors for a while now – that’s just like a gratification there that I would have never thought. Over a decade ago I was fighting to even come out and learn at one point. At times I’d rather sit home and now I’m the President of the group. I just find that pretty awesome.
Typical presidential duties are to lead the CCS meetings. I also help to set the direction and what we want to do throughout the year along with the Vice President and the rest of the board. These can be activities for Chicago Stepping, outreach initiatives, or scholarship pieces that we do. We keep everything going forward and headed toward our vision and mission.
What are some immediate goals or challenges for Capital City Steppers and how do they align with the vision?
Our biggest challenge right now is obviously coming out of the last year and a half from COVID. Knowing it’s not going anywhere, we still have things like classes that we haven’t fully revamped, but we’re still working on doing that. Also, we did not host Carolina Summer Nights but we did still award a scholarship last year to two high-school graduate students in North Carolina. The biggest part of the vision is empowering our community and regardless of an event or not, we still want to look for ways to help our community and specifically help our youth get to the next stage.
How is Capital City Steppers dealing with the pandemic?
Well, honestly, we’re not really dealing with the pandemic a whole lot. We aren’t fully on radio silence either. Patrick started his First Saturdays. I was out there and we had a decent crowd. CCS is working towards getting back to that. It’ll probably be, at this point, in January where we kind of come back out in full force.
What are some of the activities planned for 2022?
We’ve got Carolina Summer Nights and put that date out there. We have all the arrangements made with the hotel, but our next hope is to get back out there and start doing our demonstrations again. That’s where we take the dance to the people at the festivals and events they host downtown. Just getting back involved in that and going from there.
What is your transition plan for the President coming on after you?
Typically, we’ll just have a meeting with the next elected officials that come in. There’s been kind of subtle talks of just redoing our two-year term because we didn’t really get to have a term per se due to the pandemic. In the case that does not happen, we just go by our bylaws and vote. Typically, we’ll just sit down with the next board of officials and make sure everything is aligned. Most things are set and kind of put in place before that. We’ve got a relatively small group so everybody is kind of aligned with the mission. Everybody just has a different way of expressing it and is in alignment with Denise’s vision for the group. We’ll just make sure it’s a smooth transition.
What is the investment, effort, and time for you to fill your responsibilities?
In the typical season, Presidential-wise, I guess there’s probably not as much outside of our monthly general meetings and board meetings and settings. But, as far as investment in the group in totality, add that to being the lead male instructor. This probably takes more of the weekly time for group practices and then privates here and there. Also time for the class session and organizing with Erika making sure we’re all in stride together as far as how we are teaching, and making sure the other members who are assisting with the group in class are sticking to the same story.
What is one thing now that you are taking an advantage of that you hope other groups do too?
I hope everyone kind of realizes the importance of time – time in this dance and time away from this dance. And I say that just to say, here, we’ve been off for a year and a half or so for the most part. Most people are just fine. They’re doing other things. They’re trying to get into other hobbies or find ways to fill that void. As much as we love this dance there’s a whole lot more out there as well. Take advantage of the time that we have because once everything is back up and going the way people envision and want it to be, time and dollars will probably be funneled back into Stepping. Stepping ain’t necessarily cheap. A lot of people should have saved a lot of money in the last two years. Hopefully, people found something else to do, saved money, and just maximized that time.
Once Stepping comes back even here in the capacity in Raleigh, be ready. I’m teaching and Stepping is going to take that time again. We’ve gotten used to having that time back. We love what we do so we will go back into it and keep it moving so we can continue to advance the community. I’ve met some interesting people. Tonight is, well, my anniversary. I met my wife on the dance floor and I would have never imagined that 13 years ago. As much as I haven’t been Stepping now, I love Stepping but I enjoy the time off. I am looking forward to getting back out there and feeling comfortable doing what we all love to do.
About Capital City Steppers
Capital City Steppers(CCS) was formally founded in August 2013 and was registered as a nonprofit corporation with the state of North Carolina. In October 2016, they became federally recognized as a 501C3 nonprofit organization. CCS consists of seven members on the board – Five of which are founding members. Two are elected by a majority vote of the board. Officers include the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Officers are elected by nomination and a majority vote of the membership. Elected board members serve a two-year term. CCS also has standing committees for Budget and Finance, Membership and Dance Development, Event Planning and Hospitality, and Community Service and Community Relations. All membership engage in committees and being officers.
As we grew, we had to be intentional about the structure and how we came together and tried to put together the best quality of events and the services that we presented to our clients or our customers. Our membership fluctuates between 15 and 25 people. Right now we are at 18 people. We’ve never gone over 25 and I personally don’t think that we ever will. I wanted to always be large enough to get the job done, but intimate enough to keep our relationships going.
We have some other ideas about engaging others who are interested. Right before the pandemic, we were about to share that information but because the pandemic hit we had to pull it back. Hopefully, when we get back in the swing of things, we will roll out our plans for growth and for others to engage with Capital City Steppers. We also have been successful in grant writing. The United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County has awarded us grants for four years straight.
Words of Advice from Denise
It is very difficult for one person to do this. I know that it would not have been as successful as it is now if it was just me. I appreciate and needed the collaboration that we had with our members. CCS would not have grown to what it is without others, and we also know that a desire to give back also helped us to be sustained. On Christmas, we’ve given to the children’s orphanage for a few years. We have given to individual families for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Every year we always find a way to give back and that helped to keep our name out there as well.
Words of Advice from Sharvin
There’s an organizational side, but also the teaching side. The dance has to be more than just parties. Right? There’s an educational side to this as far as the teaching of dance, which is truly the reason why we’re coming together. So for those individuals that are trying to start a group the easiest advice I can say is to teach what you know and know what you teach and keep it there. Once you understand that you start to make the right connections as you travel and meet instructors and find the expertise out there. It all comes together, but don’t be selling snake oil out here. There’s a whole lot in this. As a group that has hosted events and has great instructors, you gotta go get it or bring it to you which you have to pay for in most cases. You can walk in and enjoy the social side, but if you get into the organizational side, the teaching side of it, it can get heavy. We do it because we love it.
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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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