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[5/2/2008 SteppersUSA News]
Announcement Friday
If you haven't visited the main page of the site recently, you
didn't see the
announcement
about the planned "downtime" on the 4th as we move the site to a new
faster piece of server hardware. You may not even see the downtime since
it's going to be done overnight, but anytime you mess with moving
something can go wrong... so we are just preparing for as many possible
scenarios.
On Monday, keep tuned for some new features. Now I'm
going to relax It's my birthday!
Why it Makes Sense Now Part 3
By Markie Bee
This
must be done by a not-for-profit... It can not be proprietary to any one
company or instructor if the dance is going to follow the inevitable
path to wide universal acceptance and adoption by the global community.
Human nature dictates a certain amount of predictability, consistency,
and an overall sense of trustworthiness when it comes to the instruction
of the dance. That's where certification comes into play. Having a
certification infrastructure in place in 2008 and beyond will be
critical to the success of the dance in the larger arena as the dance
goes global. Many dance studios across the country will add the dance to
their repertoire (There are many which have already) and there needs to
be a system of checks and balances. If certification does not take hold,
the dance will not be taught in a way which would be (under any terms)
acceptable to the purist's... And you think people in Chicago complain
that people are not being instructed "the right way" now just wait until
you see it happen on a large scale.
It's not as far off as you might think. It's very clear steppers have
been reaching out in the recent future to dancers from other genres in
order to widen the appeal of the dance (and to pad the bottom line).
This will be followed by complaints from established instructors that
they gave (you fill in the number) lessons to someone in Houston,
Washington, or New Orleans and now they are teaching a class! There's no
certification = There's no standard. Imagine the scenario; If
there's no standard one day we will wake up and some national dance
studio will create something which is "easier for them to teach",
they'll call it Chicago Style Stepping. Bam! History is changed, the
dance is changed and tens or hundreds of thousands will learn "the wrong
dance"... Having a community supported certification system can prevent
this from happening.
There are efforts to make certification happen, but there's a problem
with what's going on. Yes credentials matter but the certification
efforts made by individual companies as for-profit ventures can
not be called legitimate as long as certification is done for an
individual companies profit. It hasn't been the standard in any
realm of dance in the past. Standardization and certification has always
been and must be a community driven venture (501c3 Not-For-Profit) which
lends creditability to the effort to potential new dancers. In this day
and age certification is the accepted norm in every strata of society.
People... we need to embrace the certification issue today not tomorrow.
I'll have more on this topic at a later date.
Related:
Why it Makes Sense Now
Why It Makes Sense Now Part 2
Recent : Why It Makes Sense Now Part 2 Why it Makes Sense Now Chicago Style Stepping Updates Chicago Style Priorities Change Divided they Fail or Not? Catching the Beat Catching the Beat Part 2
If you or anyone you know has any photos, footage or information about
or from any Steppers contests for the
History of Stepping Project,
I'd love to add it to what we have. It's Your History! OR
If you have a personal recollection concerning stepping or if you care to help
with the
History of Stepping Project in any manner, please
Send us an email.
Cross Reference Word
Index Added
Multiple Definitions Added
Definitions Page
2006 3-G's Contest results added
Timeline Updated
Steppers Compete 2003
Timeline Updated
The Dungeon in Chicago in the 1970's
See the Personal Recollections Page
Gousters appear on the Chicago
Scene
Read a Personal Recollection Here
New York Steppers Completed the first level of NSAAB training
certification a total of 7 instructors
Added to timeline
Take the April Poll
Does the current
economy affect your stepping activities?
Take a look at our You
Tube Steppers Video page and rate some videos (Six
pages now) SteppersUSA.Com sells Steppin' DVDs from across the Steppers Community.
Click Here to view the listing
or
send us an email
if you would like to include your DVDs on SteppersUSA.Com The SteppersUSA Daily News and SteppersUSA.Com are both
daily
publications which update continually. We accept and publish Steppers
classes and workshops, Daily events, weekly events, monthly events,
special events, steppers news, requests for information which we can't
answer but our visitors may have an answer to. All of this makes us the
most complete listing of Steppers information available anywhere. Send
your submissions and pluggers or flyers to us at
webmaster@steppersusa.com TODAY!
Marc Thomas: Steppin in Columbus,OH
Added to You Tube: April 19, 2008
Buy It Now On SteppersUSA
For
those of you who promote and submit events to SteppersUSA you may have
noticed we've added some new features. Some are for security purposes
like the captcha coding. Other changes are to make the
Events Submission
Form a bit more uniform and hopefully a bit easier to use. An
important addition is a three choice question where you choose... If you
sell advance tickets, can they be ordered on line? The choices are a
simple yes, no or Contact me about customers ordering tickets directly
from SteppersUSA. This FREE service by SteppersUSA
can help you increase
your advance ticket sales all from one place. Think about it. Thousands
come to this site every day looking at events and making plans. It's
convenient for the customer and you make money! Don't have a FREE Pay
Pal business account? Not a problem!
Just click Here! Even if you already have a website it only makes
sense to add a Pay Pal Button to SteppersUSA to increase the possibility
of a sale. Customers can use any credit card including Visa, Master
Card, Discover, American Express, or their Pay Pal account or directly
debit their bank account. It's safe, secure, and easy. SteppersUSA will
not ask for any personal or financial information or access to your Pay
Pal account. We will only ask for information related to your button. As
I said before SteppersUSA will not charge for this convenient service.
Both you and your customers have everything to gain! Do you have
suggestions to make SteppersUSA even better? Please Send us an email.
Please copy the message below and send it on to as many steppers as you can please!
This is an open message to ALL steppers. Please share it with as many people as possible.
As many of you may already know I started a new web
site for the benefit of the greater steppers community. It's called
The History of Stepping Project. I wish to encourage you to add your
knowledge to the timeline. If you know anything about stepping, please
share this with the public on this site. We are looking for all
information related to stepping from it's beginnings to the present. The
information literally includes everything from clubs and bars which held
steppers sets and parties to contests and the participants and results,
to when different steppers organizations and classes started, who the
instructors were and are; Musical bands, and artists, DJ's, radio and
television personalities, Movies, videos, and photos… literally
everything stepping.
Creating an accurate historic timeline will go a long
way toward helping the community take the next step in its logical
progression as it continues to grow nationwide and will become a
valuable resource for all in the future.
Your input, your knowledge and your effort have made the dance what it
is today. Don't you feel your place (and your organization's) in the
timeline is well deserved? I do!
Please send an email to your members or readers inviting them to
participate. Place a link on your web site also please. All support is
appreciated!
The effort requires more than just posting the information. The need for fact checkers, people willing to do some research exists in this important ongoing project. Just a few minutes a week can make a difference.
Thank You for your time!
Markie Bee
The History of Stepping Project
Create & buy custom products at Zazzle
Friday May 2, 2008
Fridays ol'skool steppin' (New Weekly Set)
R. Place on Park
1821 Park Street Madison WI
608-204-0508
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