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[2/24/2010 SteppersUSA Daily News]
Resistance Is Futile
By Markie Bee
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Today's Steppers Beat column is sponsored by: Steppers West Associates "A Memorial Day Weekend Jam" starting May 28, 2010 through May 31, 2010 at The Plaza Hotel and Casino One Main St., in Las Vegas, NV, 89101. They are offering a 4 Day Package Deal for $80!
This article has a lot to do with Chicago style stepping so please bear with me as I explain. While watching the early morning news today there was a story about how Macy's sales in the Chicago area are way up. Remember not so long ago when Macys bought out Marshall Fields sparking outrage throughout the Chicagoland area when they converted the flagship downtown store to a Macys?
People expressed their dissatisfaction with the change by vowing to never shop at Macys. I guess forever does in fact have an expiration date. Remember when they branded the Southside ball park from Comisky Park to Cellular Field? People vowed to never call the place by the new name. It's 2010 and just about everyone refers to "The Cell" when they mention the name of the place the White Sox play baseball.
Not so many years ago when you watched the news on the TV there would never ever be a lead story about a professional golfer's personal life or actors or actresses escapades. The lead story was reserved for things that actually affected everyone's lives. People complained but
  

 

 

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those complaints soon melted away to resignation that things change.
For as many reasons as there are people; perspectives seem to change with the times at a rate that was simply unheard of just five or ten years ago.
I've been saying for ages the technology is changing the way we do things as well as the way we look at the world. We do more in less time and involve more people in the process on a larger scale than ever imagined.
There are steppers in Chicago who were boppers long before the dance morphed into stepping. Consider the changes they've seen in what history considers an eyes blink. Over the last thirty or forty years they've seen bop turn into stepping and walking, the advent of freestyle, the dance being taught using counting systems, and national growth to the point there are steppers in every major city in the United States.
In 2010, there are still people who are doing the bop just like there are people who are holding true to what they know as stepping from twenty years ago. There are also those who have adapted and adopted. These individuals who know the dance as it was and know the dance as it is and have taken their experience and added to their dance repertoire without fighting the inevitability of change.
Of course there are those in Chicago who like the Marshall Fields, or Comisky Park, or Republicans who won't let go of what was hang on to the past with a belief that "It's my way or the highway" when it comes to any change to what is known as Chicago style stepping across the country.
Having a past is important. Remembering the past is very important. There are lessons to be learned by studying the past. But one thing I know as a fact is it isn't good to live in the past, nor is it useful to try to resurrect history. All we need is an understanding and appreciations of what was done and give recognition to those who did what they did.
Admit it or not, the dance has changed and there's no going back. History has shown us change is inevitable.
Today many steppers are looking toward the future, wondering how they can influence how the dance should be presented to the masses as it inevitably goes main stream. I feel any attempts to keep the dance as it is today will yield the same type of results we are seeing as when someone tries to hold onto what was.
Perhaps an understanding of the serenity prayer is really all we need when it comes to the present and future of Chicago style stepping. All I can say at the end is Amen!
There's just a little over a day left for you to choose what the date is for the National Chicago Style Steppers Day events. Be sure to go and vote to make yourselves heard.
We've made a lot of progress in gaining representatives in cities from coast to coast we're still looking for representatives from North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Washington State. You don't have to be a Facebook user to be a representative and it doesn't matter if you're old skool or new skool. It's all about honoring the dance and those who do the dance.
 

 

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