The website HBCUstory.org defines step as “the syncopated, percussive rhythms that emerge from the marriage of precise and stylized movements of the body, frequently coupled with songs, chants, and verbal calls.”
Bedford High School has had an extracurricular step team – the G Squad – for more than 20 years, and its latest iteration will perform at Thursday’s Black History Month celebration in the BHS gym.
The festivities begin at 6 p.m., and will feature a catered soul-food buffet dinner, an interactive performance by the poet and spoken-word specialist jamele adams, and a tribute to long-time METCO director Irene Parker.
G Squad is open to any student. There are nine members – eight of them girls. They practice on flex day and one or two other times a week. Faculty advisors are world language teacher Lisa Flannery and Hermance Septembre, a high school counselor.
A few participants gathered this week in Septembre’s office to expound on the artistic and cultural aspects of stepping.
“We do step as well as dance,” said junior Madison Miller. “With step, you are making music. Dance involves more styles.”
BHS senior Arielle Adams added, “Stomping, dancing, moving your legs, and making music with it.” Adams said she finds stepping a great vehicle for self-expression. “There are a lot of similar moves people can do.”
“We have a signature step that has been passed down that everybody knows. That’s our first routine, a familiar step that everybody knows,” Adams said, adding, “And we add new stuff to it. We stomp around and see what sounds good.”
Step routines can vary in length, but they’re always precision-based, the members agreed.
“You can stomp as loud as you want,” Adams said. “It can mean you are angry, excited, trying to get a point across. You can stomp softly, with calmness. Different movements represent different forms of expression.”
Miller pointed out that stepping is part of Black culture, particularly as presented by teams from fraternities and sororities of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU).
“To us, it is a way of bringing sisterhood and brotherhood together,” she said.
Nyanna Lee, a junior, said some of the group’s steps include chants inspired by sororities.
“When you take that attribute into a high school setting, you are able to explore what you like,” she said.
Adams said the sororities’ steps are “all over social media. We try to get inspiration from the colleges and their styles.”
She added that although some of the members of G Squad hope to step in college, “some just want make more friends and provide entertainment to the school. It’s important to see how people react to performances.”
“Through stepping,” Miller said, “I express myself a lot through balance and step. It’s a passion – I liken it more than dance.”
Lee added, “It means bonding, and I feel like a family. You build deep connections.”
Adams said she began dancing at age two, and her involvement now “means a lot, because I find other girls and guys who share the same passion for step and dance.”
Thursday’s events are sponsored by Bedford METCO and the Parents Diversity Council.
Akil Mondesir, METCO director for the Bedford schools, expressed his appreciation to Boston Bridges Initiative “for all the support to make this event and many of the events that the PDC and Bedford METCO have put together.”
Loading ...
