School/s: Morehouse founded, students affiliations are nation wide
Classifications: undergrad, post grad, and grad students
If college campuses are anything, they’re a microcosm of the world around them; static surroundings seething with amorphous social trends, changes, and subcultures. For many students the allure of assuming the role of participant in any one group or organization is too hard to resist. Nowhere is this phenomenon seemingly more evident than in the world of one of the largest and perhaps even most overlooked activities found on many campuses: Stepping.
Stepping, which is a practice not specific to Black or white Greeks and is rumored to have began when white frats used to gather in campus common areas and sing. With the inception of Black Frats, the practice quickly took root amongst the new organizations and was eventually melded with more African American based influences like the dance styles of popular groups like the Temptations and Stylistics. The activities’ evolution found stepping becoming more prominent on black campuses, and with the Civil Rights, and Black Power Movements, more culturally centric.
Today for denizens of HBCUs and campuses where Black Greek letter organizations exist, Stepping is a prevalent and common element to the social atmosphere. The sport is so coveted that many students, male and female, clamor for the chance to be on freshman dorm step teams during their first year (an activity which in many cases closely resembles pledging and often serves as a prelude to many students journey into Greek life).
Stepping, and steppers have adequate representation in most to all homecomings on these campuses (with the freshman step show being one of the most attended events in the homecoming lineup), most to all college parties (An attribution given to the Greeks who are known to breakout into their intensively choreographed routines at any moment several times during a single night), and in the overall day to day affairs on campus.
What isn’t readily revealed however, is that Stepping, and its’ participants isn’t practiced the same from group to group, campus to campus, nor is it solely on campuses where there are African-Americans. As popularity of the sport grows, garnering it more attention from the media by way of television and film (i.e.; “Stomp the Yard”, and “How She Move”), solidifying its’ place in the social psyche of collegiate America, a whole underground network is cropping up that takes step seriously, to say the least.
Enter ISTEPTOO.com, the first social networking site that serves as a “place for fans of step, steppers themselves, those acquainted with step, and for those who want to know about stepping events.” According to one one of the Founders Ronald Davis, “It’s a place for everybody to meet up”.
Founded by Joseph Andorful, Italo Brown, Ronald Davis, Brandon Earl, Brennan Manuel, Hannibal Scipio, and Bryan Wallace, ISTEPTOO.com was the brainchild of stepper enthusiasts turned Greek and step culture experts. The group met in the AUC (Atlanta University Consortium) during their freshman year and all had prior exposure to the sport and wanted to expand their involvement with the activity on the collegiate level. The 7 eventually ended up going Greek as well some founders mentoring younger steppers who embarked on the same rites of passage they had a few years prior. It was through their travels to other states, and colleges, and their interaction with other step teams that they saw a need for a viable and tangible network to be formed.
“We always wanted real stepping to be brought to the forefront” says Davis.
“We saw a lot of half stepping…we wanted to bring what we consider was the stepping and precision and definitely the entertainment factor.”
Davis says the misconception about what Step actually is is partially credited to the sports lack of mainstream notoriety: “We feel like a lot of what step is got misconstrued as just dancing or thinking it was just isolated to certain cultures, or schools when that’s not true.”
According to Davis, the amount of diversity to be found amongst the populace of steppers is completely contrary to what is often portrayed, but one thing that remains constant is the amount of discipline and creativity to be taken from it. “You have White steppers, and Latinos (especially in the North) and it [always] displays discipline and unity…I’ve spoken with them to see what they get from it…It’s something different for everybody but it brings people together, gives them something to devote their energy to creatively, gives them an out lease.
Asked where he sees the site in five years, Davis says he just wants the project to remain sustainable and accessible, eventually aiding step in becoming mainstream. “ Really we just want ISTEP the company as well as ISTEPTOO to create a community that’s truly representative of the culture…We just want to grow in size and exposure … The goal for ISTEP is to become a household name and to be affiliated with anything step.”
To become more acquainted with step culture, ISTEPTOO, or to reach out to the founders and find out how you can get involved you can reach them at their site www.ISTEPTOO.Com , or email Ronald Davis at RDAVIS@great8productions.com
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