A dynamic performance tradition among African American fraternities and sororities
involving various combinations of dancing, singing, chanting, and speaking. This
complex performance event and ritual draws on African American folk traditions and
communication patterns, such as call-and-response, rapping, the dozens, signifying,
marking, spirituals, handclap games, and military cadence chants. Stepping routines also
incorporate material from popular culture, such as advertising jingles, television theme
songs, and Top-40 hits. Fundamentally, stepping is a ritual performance of group identity.
It expresses an organization’s spirit, style, icons, and unity.
Like any other kind of folklore, step routines are transmitted orally and by example,
but they are also transmitted by videotape and copied texts. Chapters of Greek
organizations from nearby schools frequently visit each other and exchange steps, and
national meetings provide the opportunity for steps to circulate widely. Since each
fraternity and sorority has common symbols and history, each group has a core of
material in common. For example, each fraternity and sorority has “trade steps,” by
which each group is known. Kappa Alpha Psi performs a trade step called “Yo Baby
Yo.” The oldest Black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, founded in 1906, has a trade step
called “The Grand-Daddy Step.” And the oldest Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha,
founded in 1908, performs a trade step known as “It’s a Serious Matter.” Each of these
trade steps has a recognizable rhythm, set phrases, and set movements that remain fairly
constant, yet each can also be varied in innovative ways.
To establish and maintain a unique Greek identity, each fraternity and sorority must
define itself with symbols and styles that distinguish it from any other group. Members
first learn to step as part of their initiation process, and they are expected to perform
publicly as a sign of their new status. Stepping performances have become a key way for
displaying and asserting group identity, as well as for negotiating the status of each group
within the social order. Members of Kappa Alpha Psi, for example, are noted for their
dexterous use of canes, while Alpha Phi Alpha members pride themselves on the vigor of
their stepping.
Stepping is a form of ritual communication that employs at least three distinct types of
acts: cracking or cutting, freaking, and saluting. In the crack or cut, one group makes fun
of another group, either verbally, nonverbally, or both. Freaking refers to a member who
breaks the norm of synchronization and unity, in an attempt to get greater audience
response. The freaker, or show dog, as he or she is sometimes called, is a crowd pleaser.
Saluting is a ritualized greeting in which a fraternity or sorority greets another Greek
organization by imitating the steps, style, or symbols of that organization.
The Black Greek organizations step in order to get publicity, promote unity and
identity, raise money, and express a competitive spirit among the various fraternities and
sororities.
Elizabeth C.Fine
References
Fine, Elizabeth C. 1991. Stepping, Saluting, Cracking, and Freaking: The Cultural Politics of
African-American Step Shows. Drama Reviewtt35(2):39–59.
Freeman, Marilyn, and Tina Witcher. 1988. Stepping into Black Power. Rolling Stone. March
24:143–148.
Nomani, Asra Q. 1989. Steeped inTradition, “Step Dance” Unites Blacks on Campus. Wall Street
Journal. July 10, pp. A1, A4.