Entry · catalog no. 1223
step show
/ /ˈstɛp ʃoʊ/ /STEP shoh
noun · HBCU campuses across the South and Mid-Atlantic; NPHC chapters at predominantly white institutions nationwide · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
A staged competition in which chapters of Black Greek-letter organizations perform choreographed routines built from stomps, claps, chants and body percussion. Each organization performs as a unit, in matching dress, using its own calls, hand signs and colors, and routines commonly include drama, comedy and pointed jabs at rival organizations. Judges score precision, difficulty, showmanship and adherence to the organization's tradition. On many campuses the step show is the centerpiece of homecoming week and fills the largest hall available.
“Homecoming weekend they packed the arena for the step show and the Ques took it.”
2.
By extension, any organized public performance of stepping by a team outside the fraternity and sorority system, including high school step teams, church youth groups, and community and drill organizations that adopted the form.
“Her middle school put on a step show every spring after the seniors graduated.”
Origin & Attribution
Stepping grew inside the Divine Nine, the nine historically Black fraternities and sororities of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, out of chants, pledge-line marching, singing and drill practices that were themselves shaped by African and African American percussive dance traditions. Jacqui Malone's Steppin on the Blues, 1996, places the form in the wider history of Black vernacular dance, and Elizabeth C. Fine's Soulstepping, 2003, is the standing book-length study, tracing the tradition through Black colleges, churches, schools and community groups. The competitive step show as a ticketed campus event consolidated during the 1970s, and Spike Lee's School Daze in 1988 put it in front of a mass American audience for the first time. The form is often loosely described in the press as an offshoot of military drill alone. Drill is one input, but the tradition is Black Greek-letter and Black campus culture, not a borrowed one.
1988
Spike Lee's School Daze brings a Black Greek step show to mainstream film
1996
Jacqui Malone places stepping in the history of Black vernacular dance in Steppin on the Blues
2003
Elizabeth C. Fine publishes Soulstepping, the first book-length study of the tradition
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
HBCU campuses across the South and Mid-Atlantic; NPHC chapters at predominantly white institutions nationwide · 1970s
Spoken by
Members and alumni of Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, HBCU students and staff, high school and community step teams
$STEPSHThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady38 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
68/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1988
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Elizabeth C. Fine, Soulstepping: African American Step Shows, University of Illinois Press, 2003
book · printed
■
Jacqui Malone, Steppin on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance, University of Illinois Press, 1996
book · printed
■
+ Cite a sourceSchool Daze, directed by Spike Lee, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks / Columbia Pictures, 12 February 1988
film · video
See also