Spring Break
The Daily OrangeBlack Reign dance troupe embraces stepping phenomenon
By Paola Capó-García
Posted: 2/26/07, 11:13 PM EST Section: Feature
A burst of laughter filled the fencing room in Archbold Gymnasium and was immediately followed with a holler of "comedy hour is done."
Tanira Lindsay and Concha Lawrence stood firmly at the front of the room.
"Cha-os!" Lawrence yelled.
Suddenly, the 12 students in the room broke out into a cohesive choreography of stomping, clapping, snapping and other percussion-driven steps.
Then, they stopped.
"Well, that looked like chaos," Tanira said with a grin. "Again."
And so it goes for this group of performers who have brought the art of stepping to the Syracuse University campus. They are Black Reign, a step team at Syracuse University.
"There's a surge of energy that you get when you step," said Lindsay, a junior biology and psychology major.
Lindsay is Black Reign's president and one of its founders.
In the spring 2005, Lindsay, along with SU graduate Mia Armstrong, laid the foundation for Black Reign. It became the school's only non-Greek step team.
Stepping is an art form derived from Africa, where some scholars believe coal miners used to slap the sides of their Wellington boots, while singing workmen's chants. This practice was called "gumboot dancing."
"You're creating a rhythm," said Lawrence, a junior political science and African-American studies major. "Our bodies are our instruments."
Stepping has also found its way into the Greek community. The National Pan-Hellenic Council, which consists of the black, Greek-lettered organizations, adopted stepping as an identifying activity and a way to create unity.
First seen at Howard University in 1925, sororities at that time called it "marching," said Elizabeth C. Fine, author of "Soulstepping: African-American Step Shows."
"They used to march to what they referred to as 'invisible music,'" said Fine, professor and chair of the department of interdisciplinary studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. "However, it didn't come onto the national scene until Spike Lee's movie, 'School Daze.'"
Tanira Lindsay and Concha Lawrence stood firmly at the front of the room.
"Cha-os!" Lawrence yelled.
Suddenly, the 12 students in the room broke out into a cohesive choreography of stomping, clapping, snapping and other percussion-driven steps.
Then, they stopped.
"Well, that looked like chaos," Tanira said with a grin. "Again."
And so it goes for this group of performers who have brought the art of stepping to the Syracuse University campus. They are Black Reign, a step team at Syracuse University.
"There's a surge of energy that you get when you step," said Lindsay, a junior biology and psychology major.
Lindsay is Black Reign's president and one of its founders.
In the spring 2005, Lindsay, along with SU graduate Mia Armstrong, laid the foundation for Black Reign. It became the school's only non-Greek step team.
Stepping is an art form derived from Africa, where some scholars believe coal miners used to slap the sides of their Wellington boots, while singing workmen's chants. This practice was called "gumboot dancing."
"You're creating a rhythm," said Lawrence, a junior political science and African-American studies major. "Our bodies are our instruments."
Stepping has also found its way into the Greek community. The National Pan-Hellenic Council, which consists of the black, Greek-lettered organizations, adopted stepping as an identifying activity and a way to create unity.
First seen at Howard University in 1925, sororities at that time called it "marching," said Elizabeth C. Fine, author of "Soulstepping: African-American Step Shows."
"They used to march to what they referred to as 'invisible music,'" said Fine, professor and chair of the department of interdisciplinary studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. "However, it didn't come onto the national scene until Spike Lee's movie, 'School Daze.'"
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