What Is African Step Dancing?
African step dancing is a popular style of dance that traces its roots to African dance. The style has morphed through the years into a group dance that uses stomps and claps to create rhythm. It is performed across the United States at step shows.
Other People Are Reading
-
Step Dancing
-
In African step dancing, a person uses his whole body as a percussion instrument to produce movement and sound through stomping, clapping and words. The footwork is most important, and can be quite intricate. It can be performed alone, but more commonly is performed through groups. Normally, the group performs the step routine in unison, without music. The rhythm is created through the sound of the stomps, claps and words.
Origin
-
Early slaves weren't allowed to talk to each other in their native tongues or to practice their native traditions. Because of this, slaves created their own traditions, from which step dancing was born. And for this reason, it is heavily influenced by West African dancing. Slaves also used step dancing as a way of secretly communicating with each other.
-
World War II
-
Some African American soldiers in World War II used step dancing to entertain other soldiers and themselves. At that point, step dancing stopped being primarily a means of communication and became a form of entertainment, which it still is today.
Colleges
-
Step dancing is probably most popular today at colleges and universities. African American fraternities and sororities have annual step competitions and work very hard at mastering intricate step routines. Attending their step shows has become a popular form of entertainment for many students outside the fraternities and sororities, as well.
Popularity
-
Outside of colleges and universities, step dancing has been seen in the media. The dance competition show "So You Think You Can Dance" has featured stepping, as has the movie "Stomp the Yard."
-
References
- Photo Credit pretty woman dancing image by Elke Dennis from Fotolia.com
