The Bondage of Steppin
"free your mind and your feet will follow"
by: Daniel Land

original article and additional video footage can be found on the Steppers Express website @ www.steppersexpress.com

Is it me or has the topic of steppin been reserved for a select few who find it necessary to make claims or address topics that ten years ago they argued or contested to no end.

For example, steppin is only an eight step dance but not  only an eight count dance which is why I often made the statement that it can be taught or performed with a six count and eight count or any call or count one chose which has been proven even with counts that start with two step three. There are only eight steps to the dance or pattern of the dance that could be taught or performed by rhythm or counting depending on which count one prefer.

I prefer the eight count because eight counts coincide with eight steps and make the most sense. In addition, I know for a fact that steppin is a eight step dance so all the additional counts was created for personal reasons by those who found it convenient if not egotistical to claim a discovered count.

I also made it clear that steppin is not the lindy hop, ballroom or other dance forms that originated in other locations but share a common history with those dance forms based on the African American social experience, including the migration of African Americans during slavery from southern states to various parts of the country where several dance forms were integrated into various cultures, including the cakewalk that later influenced several dance forms that migrated from the south with African Americans. Tap dance was one of the perfect examples and dance forms of reference I often used to show the impact of integrated dance, demonstrating the integration of two differing cultures, Irish Jig and African Dance to bring us tap.

This is why I always stated that one could make reference to several African American dance forms to define or describe stepping and vice versa but one could not define or describe one or the other as one in the same because where each dance form share the same history, each one also carry severl minor difference, including locations that clearly separate or identify each dance form from the other based on the cultural foundation in these various areas.

I could state several facts that I discussed, wrote, shared, debated and argued with several people around the steppers culture to no avail and even now I read these same people making false claims without fact nor substance aside of hearsay.

They want to again erase the part of history about stepping that they themselves flawed. They want to act or appear though if the debate over the six count and eight count had some real substance. They want to take the position that which person taught this way or that way had some depth. They want to act like what happen the past decade concerning counts and all these debates and difference or what was experienced as a result of these debates really did not happen and that all this nonsense was just leading up to a common universal bond and discovery. Well hello Columbus, discover what was already discovered huh? Steppin is a eight step dance best performed on an eight count. Make sense to me.

They want you to believe that the cakewalk originated in New York by erasing the fact that it originated on southern plantations where slaves danced in competitions for slaveowners and received a cake as a prize before the dance migrated to New York and other places along with migrating African Americans.

If the cakewalk is a New York dance by origin. Steppin is the Lindy Hop or one can use two step three in a numerical system that find it illogical as well as a mathematicians nightmare to think that a two can fall before a one and make sense or find solution or resolve to problems or formulas for anything in this society of mathmatical relativity.

The cakewalk was not a New York Dance but a slave dance with Southern origin from plantations. It is a dance form that migrated to New York. If I may set the record straight, the cake walk not only had a great influence on New York but it also had a great influence on other African American dance forms around the country much like stepping has today, including the fact that it had a very entertaining and appealing presence and was the first African American social dance to crossover to main stream white America at a time when anything African American aside from music and slavery was off limits.

Seriously, do we truly believe that we just woke up one day and start boppin? Maybe we do if we believe that New Yorkers just woke up one day and start cakewalking.  Do we truly believe that Chicago is some separate entity from other cities and places where slaves migrated or took refuge from the horrific conditions and circumstances of the south, bringing their music, dance and other talent with them to be integrated into another environment or circumstance no different then steppin is taken to Atlanta, Detroit or L.A. to be integrated with their form of dance. Do these places abandon their style and adopt steppin or do they incorporate their style with steppin to create their own flavor and form of steppin that even though identify with steppin, it has their own signatures attached? Why else would people in Atlanta, Detroit and L.A. and other areas dance a bit different from the people in Chicago no different then the African Americans who migrated from the south to Chicago who dance different from the African American who migrated from the south  to New York. Yet we all identify the dance steppin as steppin even with several minor difference depending on location. As one man stated it is an art form and art form is creative. If you take away the creative flow of the dance and the people who embrace it, you eliminate the progression and evolution of the dance that has allowed it to exist and grow with time.

What if the slaves who cake walked in the south went to new york and everybody cake walked the same? DAH!

Do we truly believe that Steppin aside form all the history and evolution of the African American experience is some separate entity that we created and produced with no influence from our history of music and dance? Do we truly believe that ten years from now this dance will not progress, migrate and grow just as it has from what I and others in Chicago knew it in our youth.

The reality is that steppin like all African American dance forms is a variable of a larger family and group, including the Lindy Hop and others no different then the various people of African descent who were shipped or sent to various parts of the world during the slave trade. Africa is their common relationship and connection regardless of their various languages, complexions, locations, dialects, changes, fusions and claims of difference. They are variables of a larger group with a common history, AFRICA. Add what you want but Africa is and will always be the main ingredient as well as the most dominant factor.

If steppers or people with a real interest in steppin would simply look and learn the history of Afican American dance, they will find that the cakewalk played a major role with African American dance form long before it erupted in New York at stage shows and other venues of entertainment. In fact, one would find that it was as much a part of the slave experience as the inhumane treatment of slaves or the fact that soul food derive from the left over parts of the pig that plantation owners refuse to eat. We can't deny this truth and rewrite the realities behind it, especially if we are to understand our journey and from whence we came.

Yes, steppin is a Chicago dance but a Chicago dance that derived from the African American experience and that experience derive from slavery and the progress and evolution of dance as well as music. It is not separate from the realities and circumstances behind African American dance. It is no different then the Lindy Hop and why these dance forms transformed from the dance forms of Africa to various forms of social dances in America with vague resemblence of what these dance forms once was in custom, tradition and even religion.

Why would one rely on the words of those who refuse to read or study the topic in any meaningful way? Why depend on fairy tales when information is available for one to learn about oneself. I encourage any stepper to read and research African American dance and music for that matter where you will find that much of what you are told or lead to believe about steppin are from people who don't know any more then you do. Yet when you read and find out more for yourself, your information is more reliable if not credible depending on the question of how much you truly desire to understand a dance and art form you claim to love and enjoy.

Sure they can name drop and discuss places where people stepped through generations in Chicago, they can talk about contest and methods to no end. They can even tell you the latest fashions, trends, turns and other modern day factors that surround stepping. Yet, for some strange reason with all that superficial information, they always fail to tell you about the history of stepping past the Worlds Largest Steppers Contest or some folk Tale from days past a certain point in any in depth way. They want you to believe that you can sum stepping up ( with all the history and generations that preceded it to make it what it is today ) in one little article, opinion or view by self appointed authorities and so called heavy hitters who often lack not only the knowledge but the most intricate details of the dance. I am often entertained by many of these people even more by the fact that they make these claims but can't even walk aside from failing to truly know the dance form or the history behind it. If you won't take the time to learn the intricate details to perform the dance in whole. Should I really trust one with its history or that they will attempt to give me or encourage me to seek the truth about that history in whole? Partiality is already obvious or satisfying to those who lack passion to seek more or understand more before drawing conclusions that will impact the future of the dance and those who are to follow us.

You can't learn about steppin in one article or one sentence. The history is to deep. That is like trying to learn African American history in a week. You have to study stepping and embrace it with a passion. You must feel it like you lived the whole experience. It is not simply about the dance floor, footwork, turnes and hand control. It is about history an how that history is connected and related to who you are where you came from and how this dance or African American dance in general impacted your existence and survival, including social and otherwise.

Sure there are those who know about stepping but their knowledge is limited. Many of them did not know what the word meant five or ten years ago and they have not attempted to find out about it past the material rewards. However, I strongly believe that one could learn from anyone even these confused baffled pretenders, including the need to study more in depth about this art form of steppin before drawing all these premature conclusions we so often experience. I seriously believe at the end of the day if you don't do your home work about steppin, you will be as confused about steppin as you might be about God if you listen to others but never read the Bible.

I challenge you to read this article and other articles as always but also go find out about steppin by reading about the history of African American dance and how it evolved to cause steppin to rise up in the neighborhoods of Chicago. This is the only way you will know more about this dance form. It is imperative that you read and study about your history and the influence that dance and music had on your experience as an African American in whole. I assure you that you will not only find out about the dance, the music and yourself in great detail but you will have a different attitude about the entire experience of steppin and life as a whole, including who you listen to or accept as authorities and so called heavy hitters.

Suddenly, arrogance and ego will not be the order of the day and you won't find yourself in selfish arguments and debates equivalent to three or four people of African American descent sitting on a bench debating and arguing about who is a negro, black or Afro American because they to misinformed to know each word describe the same person with the same history from different times. The bop, steppin, call it what you want. When all is said and done. You will have eight steps best performed on eight counts with the same history to prove it.

Peace and God Bless
Dan Land
www.SteppersExpress.com