Step Dance In African American Culture

Each culture has a number of things that is thought to be exclusively theirs. Dancing specifically is something that makes a culture more easily identified. When you see a particular dance or think of it you, without delay associate it with a specific culture or group of people. For instance, when you hear hip-hop dance you immediately think of African Americans right? Let’s take this same idea and apply it to stepping or step dancing, what group of people or culture do you associate it with? I’m sure you connected it to the African American culture as well. This is right. Step dance is very significant within the African American community as a whole. Of course, it happens to be more concentrated amongst fraternities and sororities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Since its …show more content…
Stepping is the process of using your body as an instrument. This includes spoken word, footsteps, clapping, facial expressions and sometimes props. These props are often canes, but it is not limited to just that. More frequently this percussive dance is done by a group, but can be done by a single individual also formations closely resemble, if not exactly mimic military style. According to the History of Stepping article “The first form of step dance originated in the gold mines of South Africa during the Apartheid Pass Laws during the 1940’s and ‘50’s.” As most people rightly assume that step dancing in its rawest form started in Africa. Stepping in its rawest form was called gumbooting because the workers wore tall rubber boots called gumboots. Gumboots protected the workers feet while they worked and when stomped against the ground they gave off a lot of sound. Unfortunately, these African workers were not allowed to communicate verbally so instead they communicated through sound made with their bodies. Eventually from just a form a communication it grew to also encompass entertainment, much like today’s purpose includes