The sounds of feet stomping, hands clapping, and voices chanting in unison will resonate this weekend throughout the Alltel Pavilion at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, marking the return of the annual Fall Block Step Show. But after the show, there’s no VCU afterparty.
After violence marred last year’s post-show festivities, university officials, police and the event’s student planners decided the venue was not suitable for such a party.
| After fights last year cut short its afterparty, the Fall Block Step Show returns this weekend with a makeover that includes beefed-up security, an earlier start time and no party |
Timothy Reed, director of University Student Commons and Activities, said that planners and officials wanted to hold the show and afterparty as two separate events this year, but ran out of planning time.
He attributed last year’s mayhem to difficulties clearing out the Siegel Center and bringing partiers back in.
“That creates too much chaos,” Reed said, adding that in the future, parties will be held at a different venue than the show.
Brandes Ash, chair and chief executive officer of the Fall Block Planning Committee, said area clubs will host smaller afterparties not affiliated with VCU on Saturday.
Students can expect to see other changes this year. For one, they’ll have to swipe to enter. This is to prevent people who have VCUCards, but aren’t currently enrolled this semester, from using them to purchase cheaper tickets and enter, said Ash, a senior English major.
| Meet the steppers On the schedule are: Not stepping are: |
In another change, the doors open at 5 p.m. and the show starts at 6 p.m. – an hour later than last year. Patrons will also see 12 Richmond City Police officers and more than 30 RMC Events security staff in bright yellow T-shirts patrolling the stadium.
Reed said he expects a larger crowd to attend this year, thus necessitating more security indoors and outdoors to control traffic.
Vendors, photo sessions and a local television show that will be taping are also new additions to the highly anticipated event.
The VCU step competition features National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities from neighboring historically black colleges, Virginia Union Universty and Virginia State University, as well.
The show gives Greeks a chance to show pride and publicize their organizations, Ash explained.
Stepping has historically served a positive purpose, engendering communication and unity among its performers. Its legacy, rooted in West and South African culture, can be traced back in America to the time of slavery.
Slaves working in the fields used chanting and clapping to express themselves and communicate with one another. Modern step dance bears resemblance to the gumboot dance of South African mine workers who used foot-stomping as a social and physical expression.
In some African tribes, dancing was a part of rite of passage ceremonies. These days, pledges of black Greek lettered organizations often participate in a step show before they become fully initiated.
It is popular belief that black soldiers brought stepping to the mainstream after World War II. They returned home with military marches, line formations and the chant: “Left, left … left, right, left!”
Ash said the art form didn’t receive its name, stepping, until the 1950s when fraternities began mimicking the smooth steps of popular groups such as The Temptations and The Four Tops.
“It was a way for males to impress the ladies … I guess you could say it wasn’t ladylike,” she said, referring to sororities not stepping then.
For women, change came in the 1960s when the Black Power Movement initiated change in gender roles, said Ash, who belongs to a NPHC sorority.
Ash, who considers stepping as a big part of black history, said, “It’s so much bigger than VCU.”
Sources: www.stepafrika.com, “Soulstepping: African American Step Shows” by Elizabeth C. Fine