Stepping out

"P.B., P.B.S. -- STEP!"

STOMP, STOMP.

A group of eight men clap, then slap their hands against their hips as if they're beating a drum.

The men yell, "Whoooo!"

For several minutes, the beats echo throughout the University Center ballroom on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University as members of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity practice for an upcoming step show competition.

The eight-member Phi Beta Sigma step team will compete March 31 at the Southern Illinois University campus in Edwardsville, Ill. About 10 teams of black fraternities and sororities from area universities will vie against one another for a $1,000 grand prize.

"It takes patience, and it's not as easy as it appears," says Mike Martin, president of Southeast's Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and member of the step team.

Martin, a senior, has been a member of his fraternity's step team since he was a freshman. Today he teaches the stepping routines to his younger fraternity brothers.

Stepping is a complex performance that blends African heritage with popular culture. According to Martin, stepping began with slaves. Stepping served as a means of communication to spread important information about things like the Underground Railroad, Martin said.

In the late 1960s black fraternities and sororities embraced the tradition of stepping. Martin thinks stepping has received more recognition in the past few years as more step shows and competitions take place across the country. Movie audiences were introduced to stepping by Spike Lee's 1988 movie "School Daze." Stepping was also the subject of a recently released film, "Stomp the Yard," which follows a troubled black college student who joins a fraternity competing in a national step show.

On Southeast's campus, the men of Phi Beta Sigma practice for months, trying to synchronize their clapping and stomping before their step show competitions.

Step shows are judged on a number of criteria, including appearance, theme, difficulty, crowd appeal and creativity. Each step team has a 15- to 20-minute time limit. While the step shows are made up of a collection of rhythms using the hands and feet, occasionally props such as canes can be used to provide more beats.

Martin, who plays percussion, said stepping came easily to him because he was already familiar with beats and rhythm. "If you have coordination and you are able to put rhythms together, you can learn how to step," he said.

Step shows, he said, are similar to how marching bands create different formations on football fields. "A lot of people associate stepping with dancing, but music isn't really a part of it," he said. "We may use music, like rap songs, just to enter or exit the stage."

Phi Beta Sigma step team member Samuel Chatman, 22, first learned how to step when he was 8 years old in Boy Scouts. This is his first year stepping for an organization that competes.

"Anybody can learn how to step, but it takes time perfecting it," he said. "We put in a lot of time to perfect the show."

Several weeks before a competition, the Phi Beta Sigma step team will practice about five times a week. During the rest of the year, the team practices once a week.

Keith Gardner, 19, of Sikeston, Mo., is a rookie stepper. Last week he attended his second practice with the Phi Beta Sigma team. "It's not really hard to do. You've just got to let it flow," he said. "If you let it flow, you can do it pretty easily."

Like the other members of Phi Beta Sigma, Gardner enjoys showing off his stepping ability. "I know a lot of people who want to step but can't," he said.

As the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity practices for its step show, another group of steppers practices across campus in the basement of Cheney Hall.

The four men call themselves "The Guyz" and are a non-Greek step team. They performed at last year's Homecoming celebration and will take their step show to a Christian convention on Southeast's campus next weekend.

Guyz member Warren Lewis, a junior at Southeast, has been stepping for about 12 years in his hometown of St. Louis. He mainly does freestyle steps. "Some of my influences come from different fraternities," he says, "but mine are basically all original."

Lewis and the other members of The Guyz -- Jarell Lewis, Kendall Jackson and Melvin Bond -- perform step shows with a Christian-inspired theme.

Though Southeast's step teams are made up of black students, Chatman said stepping isn't limited to one race. "There are no color barriers in stepping. It's all about dedication and giving it your all," he said.

The black sororities at Southeast also perform in step shows, but usually only during Homecoming weekend.

Southeast student Ashley Moore, 22, is a member of the Zeta Phi Beta step team. "I got involved in stepping when I was in middle school," says Moore, who is from St. Louis. "I did it because it seemed like a fun after-school activity. Stepping is also very unique because it allows us to express our traditions."

In the spring, the Phi Beta Sigma step team will prepare for its fraternity's regional step show at the end of April in Kansas City, Mo. The winner of the competition will receive an invitation to the national competition in North Carolina.

This year, Southeast's Phi Beta Sigma steppers will be the team to beat at the regional competition they won last year. The men didn't have a chance to compete at the national level last year because that competition is held only once every two years.

"This year everybody will be looking at us, at least in our region. People across the nation don't know us yet, but we want to change that," Chatman said. "We want to not only put our step team on the map, but we want to put Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University on the map."

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246