Re: “Stomp The Yard delivers nothing new,” Jan. 12:
There were two sections of Norman Wilner’s movie review of Stomp The Yard, that caught my attention:
1. “…in this case it’s called krump dancing, also known as ‘stepping.’ “
2. “Stepping, which evolved from stripperdance and clowning…”
I don’t think that’s true or else my stepping instructors were lying to my entire squad.
Stepping was derived from the African Boot Dance; from the days when slaves would have a moment bestowed upon them to get some exercise and they adapted the style of stomping and clapping to a beat. Stepping is creating percussive sounds using your hands and feet (stomping, clapping, hitting your chest/thighs, etc.) while keeping a beat and rhythmically moving to choreography. That dance became traditionally formalized in Black college sororities and fraternities.
Stepping couldn’t have evolved from the dance style popularized by David LaChapelle’s RIZE, even though elements of krumping, clowning (created in the early ’90s by Thomas Johnson a.k.a. Tommy the Clown) and stripperdance are incorporated into in the routines depicted in the film.
And while those dances have been around long before a movie was made about it, Stepping most definitely did not come from it.
