Step contest unites black greek community
Dalenisha Crabtree
of Alpha Kappa Alpha
Sorority Inc. danced
at the sixth-annual
Step Show hosted by
Zeta Phi Beta. This
year’s event, “Ain’t
No HalfSteppin',”
was held Saturday
evening in the EMU
Ballroom.
———_—____
Nicole Barker | Photographer
Members of the National Pan-Hellenic Conference
took part in the "Ain't No Half Steppin" competition
BY MATT CHABAN
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
A quiet pervades the EMU most
Saturdays, its many amenities shut
tered as students head off campus
to party and study.
But this Saturday the hip-hop that
rumbled through the building was
drowned out only by the thunder of
a stomping and clapping crowd dur
ing “Ain't No Half Steppin’,” the
sixth-annual step competition put
on by the members of the Zeta Phi
Beta sorority.
Because the University is pre
dominantly white, “black greeks are
underrepresented and unnoticed,”
senior LaTina Lewis said. Lewis
planned most of the step competi
tion, a part of her responsibilities as
president of Zeta Phi Beta.
The Zetas established the step
competition to bring together com
munity members and students from
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the nine traditionally black fraterni
ties and sororities, known as the
National Pan-Hellenic Conference.
Kaon-Jabbar East, an alumnus of
the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity who
now lives in California, read a histo
ry of step during the Kappas’
performance.
East dated stepping to colonial
South African diamond mines,
where slaves were robbed of their
instruments for fear they might in
sight an uprising. They then began
to use their bodies in place of their
drums, clapping, stomping on the
ground and pounding their torsos,
thighs or heads with their hands.
Melissa Ballard, a University sen
ior and Zeta sister, said the moves
originated from black soldiers re
turning from military service, which
is why stepping demands “extreme
precision.”
“People give widely varying an
swers to the simple question, when
and where did stepping begin?”
writes Elizabeth Fine, a Virginia
Tech professor, in her book “A His
tory of Stepping.” “While many
African movement and communi
cation patterns are clearly evident
in stepping, the tradition was forged
on college campuses in black frater
nities and sororities out of the
African heritage of speech, song,
and dance.”
A nearly full EMU Ballroom re
flected student and community in
terest in this heritage.
“It’s just about the culture and
the excitement of seeing a group of
people work together as a team,”
said junior LaTasha Brown.
Kery White said he drove down
from Portland for the show.
“I come every year, and I’m a loy
al fan. It’s a place to see family and
friends, and it gets increasingly bet
ter every year,” he said.
The show opened with the differ
ent greek organizations marching
and stepping through the aisles.
The first act, a duo from Portland
called the Hip-Hop Group, stepped
to a medley of contemporary
hip-hop tracks.
They were followed by the Kappa
Alpha Psi fraternity. After East read
the history information, he and
three others performed a series of
steps with canes that they slammed
against the stage and spun into
the air.
After an intermission, the Sigma
Beta fraternity from Seattle per
formed a set filled with sexual innu
endoes that garnered the most bois
terous response from the audience.
“What we’re gonna do right here
is go back in time. Way back, be
fore all the theatrics,” members of
the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority said
as they took the stage for the final
act of the night. But then the disco
started blaring, and the Sigmas’
joke was revealed as they began to
cop moves from “Saturday
Night Fever.”
During the sorority’s routine, 1
year-old Kaylen Lewis squirmed in
her mother’s lap as she had for
much of the show, but not from
boredom. She, too, wanted to step.
Wriggling free from Shereesa Lucas’
arms, Kaylen bobbed and jumped
in the aisle, even pounding the floor
once or twice. Just like the adults
around her, she had a huge smile
on her face.
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