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African slaves began “stepping” in the 1800s, and fraternities and sororities now perform the dance style across college campuses nationwide.
The dance is not performed to music. Instead, performers create their own rhythms by clapping, stomping and slapping parts of their bodies.
Senior dance major Erin Kathmann choreographed and performs in the only stepping dance piece at this fall’s theater and dance showcase, “Points in Space.”
“I just wanted to let Albuquerque and UNM know that there’s more in the dance department than meets the eye,” she said. “And I think that’s a way that I want to go: to show the world that there’s more out there than the basic kinds of dancing that we have.”
She said she was inspired to try stepping after watching the movie “Stomp the Yard,” and she started stepping within her multicultural sorority, Theta Nu Xi.
Kathmann’s piece “Belichikun Dim Dum Ticket Dome Check” began Friday night with a vigorous set of stepping, and in the middle of the piece, the group of three dancers paused at exactly the same time, exclaiming “I’m so tired,” and “Today was a bad day for milk.” After heaving and panting for a few minutes, they exclaimed, “You can’t stop the beat” in unison and continued with the routine.
Kathmann said she wanted to add some more humorous elements to the show.
“You can’t take life so seriously, so dancing’s the way to break out and be yourself, and for me, I always have a smile on my face, half laughter, so I wanted to put some comedy into it,” she said. “I think people are driven to it; if they can laugh about it then they’re going to be more interested.”
She said the name “Belichikun Dim Dum Ticket Dome Check” is the sounded-out version of what the rhythmic beat of the piece sounds like.
“The title of our piece, it’s like ‘What the heck is this?’” she said. “People don’t know what’s going on. Once we start that beat with slapping our hands or clapping, they’re like ‘Oh, this is something new to me, I want to learn more.’”
Kathmann said a stepping dance is rarely repeated more than once.
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Each dance features new choreographed moves and elements. She said this means it can be more interesting than traditional ballet or modern dance.
“You can get the same thing out of (stepping) that you would if you loved ballet,” she said. “I think it’s for everybody; you don’t want to go to a show and just see ballet, because over and over it could become quite boring at times. You want to see something fresh and something new, and I think that’s where stepping comes in.”
