Boundary Crossing… one step at a time
Stomping, shouting, tapping, pounding and dancing flooded the Taggart Student Center Ballroom Friday night during the fourth annual Step Show themed Stepping Across Boundaries.
The show, held by the Theta Nu Xi multicultural sorority, in conjunction with the Psi Sigma Phi multicultural fraternity, gathered dancers from different organizations on campus, Southern Utah University, Ben Lomond High School, Mountain Crest High School and Idaho State University.
“We are the largest step show in Utah,” said Jamal Jaber, a senior majoring in psychology and president of Psi Sigma Phi. “This year we actually had to turn down dancers because the show was too long.”
There were performances of rhythmic stomping and clapping, hip-hop dance sequences, step performances and shout-outs to different fraternities and sororities on campus.
To many students, stepping may be something that they have never heard of before. It was started by African-American fraternities and sororities along the East Coast and in the Southeast.
Caress Bergado, a senior in interior design and the president and public relations chair for Theta Nu Xi, said, “As we were promoting the step show nobody really knew what stepping was. The first year it was put on there was three performances. Every year it gets bigger and bigger. It’s just a good opportunity for students to see different dance genres.”
According to the book, “Regeneration through Dance in African-American Fraternities and Sororities,” by Jacqui Malone, “Stepping was created by African American sororities and fraternities in the mid-20th century … in stepping, the body takes the place of the drum: clapping, slapping the hands against various parts of the body, and stomping the feet, to produce the complex rhythmic foundation for the dance.”
The show is held to help raise awareness for different dance cultures on the USU campus, and for the many different forms of cultural entertainment.
“I think that students get to see a different culture that they never get to see in Logan,” Jaber said. “We had Caucasians, Latinos, African-Americans and Asians involved and a lot of other cultures represented.”
The night went along as planned, except during the dance-off contest. The contest was opened to the audience to fill in a time gap during performances. There was some free-style dancing that was not approved of patrons at the show.
“It was just unfortunate that that had to happen,” Bergado said. “We are really trying to make this good entertainment for the community and for the students.”
Practice for the show started several months before the show began. At the end of the night brothers from the Psi Sigma Phi performed a step that is very sentimental to them. Mike DeLaO, a brother of the fraternity created the step three years ago and has since passed away. Every year the step created by DeLaO is the closing act of the night.
Jaber said that his favorite part about doing the show is that, “I always like the last step by Mike DeLaO because it gives time to remember him.”
Some of the goals of the Theta Nu Xi and the Psi Sigma Phi are to bring diversity to the campus and community, and to have a true awareness of the term “multiculturalism.” Some of its other goals are to have academic excellence, community service, leadership and multiculturalism.
“Culture is not just who you look like but who you are,” Bergado said. “It is how you live your life such as what foods you eat and how you run your daily activities. Multiculturalism is cultures coming together as one in celebration of each other’s individuality and uniqueness.”
The organizations are planning on keeping the show an annual experience. Bergado said to expect even better things next year.
-rbarlow@cc.usu.edu
Martine Celestin and Jamal Jaber hosted the Step Show Friday night. (Photo by John Zsiray)