During the energy-filled performances of a step show, the synchronized thunder storming from the steppers’ feet can be felt as well as heard. For step show fans, the infectous, corporeal beats often distract from the history, work and dedication that go into in the final performance.
But any stepper will tell you that there’s more than noise behind the thunder.
Stepping began in African dance and rhythms, the elements of which have since been adopted by the nine historically black fraternities and sororities nationwide that comprise the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Every year Duke’s six NPHC member groups spend months preparing for their performance in the increasingly competitive Homecoming Step Show. The non-NPHC Latina sorority Lambda Pi Chi performs non-competitively, rounding out the performances with its step exhibition.
Though the most skillful member of each group creates an original routine for the show, most groups have signature moves. Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity is known for using canes during performances, Phi Beta Sigma fraternity notoriously joins steps with soulful song and Omega Psi Phi fraternity is distinguished by its powerful, forceful stomps. Lambdas incorporate their Latin roots with traditional steps by interspersing salsa or merengue moves to give their routines a distinctive feel.
Rehearsals for competition are "closed for the same reason that a football team doesn’t give its playbook to the opposing team before they play," says Al Curtis, ’05, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Like most steppers, he is quick to add that routine theft rarely happens because each team understands the importance of the routine. "We do not have to ‘enforce’ closed rehearsals...[T]hat's just respect frats and sororities have for each other to not roll in on other groups."
This universal respect arises from an understanding that, as Delta Sigma Theta sorority stepmaster Akosua Kankam puts it, "stepping is something that is sacred to us."
Practices are physically challenging, occur almost daily and require nothing less than the utmost dedication. "You’re representing your organization...regardless of if you’re sick, you still have to go to practice and put your all into it," says Lambda president Alexa Ramirez, who practiced and performed for last year’s step show despite a bout with mononucleosis.
The physical hardships of practice are rewarded when the steppers enter the bright lights of the stage. "I could not put into words the rush of adrenaline you feel. Everything is surreal,"Curtis says.
Sigma President A.J. White feels similarly awed--after three years of performing, he says he still experiences butterflies before stepping.
The nervousness steppers feel may also be attributed to the show’s transition from an exhibition to a competition in 2002. The Alphas and the Sigmas have since passed the winning trophy back and forth. Among the sororities, there also exists a friendly rivalry between the Deltas and Zeta Phi Beta, largely because they are the only NPHC sororities competing in the show. White assures that "rivalries are not based on serious hatred" but on friendly competition.
The Step Show provides a rare social forum on a campus where students often complain that interracial interaction is scarce. Still, attendence tends be be largely black and latino. "I think it’s kind of sad,"Ramirez says of the spectrally one-sided audience. "I would like to see more people come out from different backgrounds." Those involved emphasize that stepping is not a culturally exclusive phenomenon. "I'd say the Step Show is the single most unifying event on campus,"Curtis says. "Everyone can appreciate it, and everyone does. It is difficult to get our sometimes-splintered community to enjoy an event together. The Step Show definitely accomplishes that."
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