PERFORMERS "Stepping," one of the most exciting dance forms to evolve in the twentieth century, is a complex multilayered movement genre created by African American Greek-letter fraternities and sororities. It features synchronized, precise, sharp, and highly rhythmical body movements variously combined with singing and verbal play. In the last five to ten years, this ritual form, which began on college campuses, has moved into a position of national visibility. What we call stepping in the 1990s grew out of song and dance rituals performed by Greek-letter chapters as a way of expressing solidarity and love for their organizations. Between the 1940s and the 1990s, this constantly changing form has evolved and absorbed many cultural influences along the way. In addition to its most obvious influence, the music and dance-aesthetics of sub-Saharan Africa, a partial listing of steppings inherited and acquired artistry includes black American social dances, military drilling, cheerleading, African American childrens games, martial arts, the precision marching of historically black college bands, music videos, vocal choreography, acrobatics, and American tap dancing. Like many other vernacular forms, stepping has the ability to assimilate almost anything in its evolutionary path. At the same time it has achieved its own highly distinctive character. Jacqui Malone
from Steppin on the Blues Alpha Phi Alpha , the oldest black Greek letter organization, was founded on December 4,1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha was founded in response to the need for an organization of highly motivated and college-trained black men who could address the problems of the black community. The Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first to exist on a black college campus, was founded at Howard University on December 20, 1907. Alpha Phi Alpha has built over 635 chapters throughout the world, including the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, and has initiated some 100,000 members, including Martin Luther King, Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Justice Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell, Jesse Owens, and Duke Ellington. | |
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