steppin' FAQs

The National Chicago Style Steppers Day celebration team is coordinating an annual group meet in multiple cities simultaneously on the second Saturday of August. It is the year to recognize its sixth year since its inception by the late Markie Bee. The National Chicago Style Steppers Day event idea grew from the thought based on the idea that there wasn't a day when all people who step could celebrate the dance they love and the people who make up the ever-growing community where ever they are across the United States, thus taking it beyond the limits of Facebook, community groups or other webpages. The day creates a unique opportunity for all Chicago-style steppers across the country to show unity in the name of the dance for the entire nation to see. It also gives steppers the opportunity to invite the non-stepping public to join in and learn the dance as well. It doesn't matter if you are a new stepper or a very experienced stepper; a stepper who dances to a six-count, eight-count, or no-count at all; and you don't even have to be a stepper to celebrate this day with us. Chicago steppers broadcasting their events will be observed globally. Participants are asked to use modern technology via Laptops or smartphones to upload photos or videos from their event. Don't forget your hashtag:

Every student should be able to recognize their connection to Chicago. It's like knowing your roots or genealogy.

People get really uptight when they discover that the Hustlers, Pimps, Playas, and other underworld people created this dance. You had the street and square kids who couldn’t come out of the house as much as we did. That’s why this dance will never be given its true props because, on a national level…people can’t believe this level of creativity came out of the streets when it comes to this dance. Nobody from the 70s can dispute what I’m about to say. In the dance…they call it …” Man on Man,” which I don’t care for that term, but you would have two sets of guys going against each other. Somewhere, signals will be given and taken by one of them. If I grabbed your wrists…I led. That was the signal. If you grabbed mine…you led. Your Legends were Ice Ray and Ice Rob…Derrick Nute, who was 13 years old…Sarg, Womack, Butch, Dirk Parker, Jerry Clark, Fred Astaire (Brian), Gene, and Barry. Westside Mike is not a good dancer…he’s a GREAT dancer! Having showmanship allowed him to be innovative with his dance. One time…Westside put on a pair of female high-heeled shoes and got down in those heels proving that anything can be done in heels. He is a monster when he’s feeling good and in that zone. I want Rich to be a hybrid able to mix the two. The footwork needs to be the star of the dance, not the number of spins you can give a woman. and those females… Kathleen "Lady Tabu" Wiggins, Jannice Robertson, the late great Damita Collins, Gena Johnson (Speedy), and Lynn (China Doll). Man…you can throw anything at those women, and they stay with you during the whole dance. That’s following! There aren’t a lot of ladies out here that can do that because they are too busy countin'. from Josiah Burt, a pillar or a brick in the foundation of Steppin.

It is the only dance we have in this country, exclusively created in the streets by African-Americans, that has reached national and international status.

Old School Steppin did NOT come from the Bop! The format changed with the era. This dance goes all the way back to the Jitterbug days. The disconnect is because Old Schoolers didn’t want to show the New Skoolers anything they were doing. Old Schoolers believed you should go through the struggle and get your dance. New Skool Steppin came from the Bop. The Bop my mom and dad, did goes from side to side. The eight-count goes up and back. What WE did was different back in the 70s. We crossed one another when we danced. It wasn’t the mirror effect. It was all about the opposites. Right…left…double to the right…etc. Back then, you wanted everything to be synchronized with your dance partner. If you could follow anybody…you received significant credit. In the dance…they call it …” Man on Man,” which I don’t care for that term, but you would have two sets of guys going against each other. Somewhere, signals will be given and taken by one of them. If I grabbed your wrists…I led. That was the signal. If you grabbed mine…you led. Don Vic, Donnie Davis, Frank Poindexter, and Donnie Ray were very important in the dance back then also. Sam Chatman put that term on the map. We didn’t say we were going “steppin'.” We said we were going to a “party.” After Sam Chatman said, “Look at those Steppers” one night at The Dungeon…that’s when the Steppers sets began. For example, Break dancers learned by practicing and doing…not counting. We got up in the morning… practiced during the day… perfected it, and then took it to the set. It was very competitive. Who was the best on the Southside and the best on the Westside? We had a hat in which any couple who thought they were good would drop $100. The other couple would put their money in, then it was on. To be great on this day, you had to excel above everybody else you were dancing with. That’s how good your skill set was determined. The hat and the money. It you want this dance bad enough…you’ll get it.

People kill me trying to make it seem like the Dungeon was open every night. It was only open on Sundays. That was another reason the “good kids” didn’t learn the dance as we had it…because they had to get up and go to school the next morning. We also hung out at The Sheba, Hummingbird, The Keymen's Club, The Markham Skating Rink (Markham, Illinois outside of Chicago), and the Beverly House.

People always wonder about the clothes we wore and the dance moves and where we got them from. We started skating off James Brown songs, which then transferred into the dance. Everything we heard…the drums, guitars, and horns…did it for us. Our swagger came from James Cagney. However…it was the movies we were watching that had Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Gene Kelly, the Nicholas brothers, and a couple of other tap dancers that gave us the moves and the attire we wore. We wore long hair, “butta” like a perm. The Fedoras, Bosselinis, The Dobs, and the pinstriped suits with the double vents…that was the style for us. Later in the 70s…the Blaxploitation movies gave us another level of style from movies like The Mack, Shaft, and Dolomite …it was all by design. It’s no different from the generation that liked Scarface and The Godfather Thugs in those movies. -- Josiah Burt

All the men want footwork, which has NEVER been taught around the country because if they did…all the men would be doing it. Why aren’t the men learning Old School footwork around the country? Because the people instructing it haven’t learned it. They just know things above the waist. Anything you teach with numbers is basic. When you stop doing the basic…you become a freestyler. There are guys right now in Chicago who have never stepped foot on a World’s Largest stage that will burn a hole in the floor doing old-school footwork. Everybody wants to get into the old-school footwork. Do you know why? Drew, Tyk, and Dre -- all three are talented in their own right. They take what they have done with the dance and have taught it around the country, but people gauge what they see them doing as the only kind of steppin' there is, and that’s not true. After 25 years, Kathleen Wiggins went to Chicago’s Largest last year in 2014 and burnt every New Skool woman up on the floor. This was the first time many out-of-towners saw a female doing the same thing that the guys did. So this glimpse of the past has got a lot of New Skoolers excited to learn the Old School way. ----------------- Imagine…something pimps and hustlers created got people traveling all over this country to go to mega sets and conventions. Steppin has made people take more vacations than ever in the last ten years than they would normally take. It’s the new craze-- It’s not thuggish anymore. You can go out and be elegant in this dance format now. You get to buy clothes and go out and meet new people. You don’t have to wait until Sunday …it’s stuff going on all the time in the name of Steppin.

The DJ. They can make you stay at the party or walk out. The DJ has to feel it too. If you DJing and you don’t see some of your baddest steppers dancing…that will tell you that they ain’t feelin' what you playin'.

No. In order to continue to help students build a solid foundation and enhance their dance, members of the SW family must also continue to learn and receive instruction. Even our SW class instructors attend and receive regular private dance instruction and practice. (You will learn that practice is very important!) You have many options; however, your presence in our class is not only a privilege. We consider it a privilege to be a part of your journey towards both personal and professional development..