A new club has arrived on campus, one that supports not just dance, but some Steppin’.
B Smooth Steppers is a club on Bradley’s campus devoted to teaching people how to dance. With a concentration on a style called Chicago Style Steppin’, the budding club seeks to bring African-American expression to the student body.
“The club was basically started to provide awareness about Steppin’,” Christian Early, president of the B Smooth Steppers, said. “Many people confuse it with Greek in terms of fraternities [and] sororities, when it is completely different. The club was also started to spark an interest in my generation, since there aren’t many young people who know about this dance.”
For Early, a junior psychology major, spreading that awareness comes not only through the act of dancing itself, but also knowing some of the history that made it what it is today.
“Steppin’ came about once African-Americans began to learn swing dancing, which was popular in the 1920s,” Early said. “By the time the ‘50s came around, African-Americans slowed down the dance and created a variant which they call the Bop. From the Bop, came Steppin’ in the ‘70s, and it has evolved from there ever since.”
For those involved with the club, the community of dancers is a warm and welcoming one that is accommodating of inexperience. Deja Monroe, sophomore marketing major and one of the dancers in B Smooth Steppers, said that under Early’s leadership, even the struggling and inexperienced dancers are reassured that everyone is learning the smooth style of dance.
“Chicago style is very smooth, hence the name B ‘Smooth’ Steppers,” Monroe said. “Once you have it down, it looks so nice and smooth, like it comes so easy, and it’s just flowing out of your body. It has viewers looking in awe and wanting to move their bodies and learn. It’s like the two people are so in sync that you can’t find a flaw in the stepping even if there was.”
Standing atop the shoulders of dancers before them, the diverse mix of experienced and novice dancers have high aspirations for Bradley’s campus.
“We are hoping to host a Steppin’ Showcase next semester to fully unveil what Chicago Style Steppin’ is,” Early said. “But as far as accessibility to students, they are free to come into the practices we have if they’re interested to see what we’re about.”
While most of Early’s drive for the club’s direction involves helping others, his own story sets an example of just how dance can benefit students.
“Steppin’ in general has changed my life,” Early said. “I used to be really shy in high school, and it was Steppin’ that made me reach out more … Without Steppin’, I would not be who I am today.”
Anyone interested in being involved with the B Smooth Steppers can do so by emailing Early at cearly@mail.bradley.edu, or, as Early put it, by simply “showing up at the practices” in Markin Family Student Recreation Center Room 30.
