Collegiate Stepping and Zeta Phi Beta

Stepping: A Prime Example of the Stylistic Profile

• Challenge / Counter Challenge - Friendly competition between Greek organizations
• Body as Expressive Instrument- the body and voice are used as percussive instruments
• Expressive Simultaneity- stepping is an auditory and visual spectacle
• Polyrhythms & Sampling- various rhythms, moves, and stunts are adopted.

"Some of them we looked up on Youtube and were like ‘wow, this is hot,’ or ‘we gotta try this’ and there are a whole lot of videos of stepshows and strolls. It was about 75/25, like 75% we took from videos and 25% we made up. With the transitions, and instead of taking one step exactly how it is we would take one piece of it and attach it onto another piece. That takes a lot of practice, because steps go really fast. It could take you 30 minutes to make a 10-second step, even 5 seconds. Everything is so quick, so we’d have to slow down videos. That’s how we create steps, it’s a mixture of using videos and us making stuff up."

Initial Ideas & Assumptions

• Stepping is essential to black Greek life.
• All Greeks step, and could step prior to coming to college or going Greek.
• The history of stepping is well known and studied among those who step.
• The nature of performance is the same regardless of race.
• Black Greeks would be opposed to other cultural groups adopting traditions of step.

The Four Tenants

Service

Scholarship

Sisterly Love

Finer Womanhood

"Stepping is essential to black Greek life."

While it is a large component of the creative and social experience, it is not the primary focus.

"So like I said before, though we think stepping is important, we try not to define ourselves by that. Most often when orgs want us to collaborate with them, they just want us to perform. And that kind of – I mean we can collaborate with you from a business standpoint, we’re not just about stepping. We’re not your monkeys. We’re not purely entertainment. We’re about business too. So that’s something I want to articulate."

"All Greeks step, and could step prior to coming to college or going Greek."

Stepping is found in the Black community as a form of youth engagement under certain contexts like church or school. However, stepping is not a prerequisite that one should have learned before coming to school, and the exposure to stepping varies from person to person.

"Back in the day, they would chant in their step routines and talk about their history, which made it very meaningful. But now there are more elements of dance. Maybe someone will do a pirouette or a pivot, like basic dance steps. Sometimes acrobatics, cheering. Last year, someone did a basket toss at the end of the step."

History is important, but stepping is not a static art form. It changes in response to the current reality of the performers, giving it new meaning and style. Stepping today is not what it was 50 years ago, or even 5 years ago.

We were pretty much wrong!

"The history of stepping is well known and studied among those who step."

Questions?

Thank you!

"The nature of performance is the same regardless of race."

In white performance traditions, performance is most often a specific, planned event, whereas in black performance traditions, it is more deeply woven into the fabric of communication and celebration. Performance is more present in the everyday.

Because the nature of performance in the black community is part of the communicative and social fabric, if attention to detail and care are not paid by the organization to this very specific form, they may be looked down upon under the assumption that because they don't pay those respects to the form, they don't pay those respects to their principles.

"...them trying to incorporate that into their organization is not as much imitating as it is flattering, in my opinion."

"Black Greeks would be opposed to other cultural groups adopting traditions of step."

Cook: I don’t personally have a problem, I think it’s great that other organizations outside of NPHC are interested in stepping. I’m all for it. Probably as a whole, people would have something to say about it. I hate this about NPHC, they’re so protective of their traditions. It’s understandable. They don’t like when other orgs try to copy or do the same things. They think it’s robbery.

KC: Why do you hate that?

Cook: I shouldn’t. I don’t think we should be so against it. We shouldn’t make others feel like they can’t even like what they do. There’s a stigma. Everybody knows where it comes from, so why not let other people do it and enjoy it? They see it as a matter of respect.

Collegiate Stepping and Zeta Phi Beta

A Glimpse Into Additional Topics in Our Papers

• Strolling
• Gender and the Body- Stepping and the tenent of finer womanhood are linked. It is a political act to be a female performer who uses her body on her own terms.