[7/14/2010 SteppersUSA Daily News]
Dispelled Myths
By Markie Bee
National Chicago Style Steppers Day
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One thing seems to be constant like the tick-tock of a clock or the sun rising in the eastern sky... when you talk to veteran Chicago style steppers who have been dancing over 20 years. They all counted before they learned to really dance. They didn't learn today's six or eight count methods because the methods didn't really exist back then.
They may have learned using a simple 123 or a left - right or a do as I do "counting" method but as it was explained to me it's all about teaching oneself muscle memory of the basic pattern of the dance which is at the core of what is Chicago style stepping.
These dancers all seemed to understand something that many of today's dancers and some instructors don't seem to comprehend.
If you can't train yourself to dance using the basic pattern from "muscle memory" you're not dancing you're just counting. In other words
 

 



 

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there's no such thing as an intermediate stepper. Either you can dance or not. Universally they say there's a bunch of counters out there and they need to progress to the next level and that's dancing and counting isn't dancing... it's counting!
Our dance comes from our heart and soul and has nothing to do with numbers beyond basic training and the syncopation that comes with the dance and music.
Another myth was busted on a fairly universal scale about Chicago style stepping. Many people call the dance a culture and by itself it's not a culture. It's the result and a part of a culture and when I addressed this issue one twenty year plus stepper told me these individuals were just misinformed and need to look at the totality of their own culture and they would see how stepping fits in within the culture.
I think I can boil it down to a statement like this, "A dance may represent something within a culture but the dance itself isn't a culture in or by itself." I hope I did what was said proper justice. If not I'm sure I'll get an earful.
Well, it's back to working on editing videos I've shot in the last couple of months. I'm almost done with the St. Louis video and should start on the video I shot in Detroit very soon. Have a wonderful day steppers!
I have one question for you... what are you doing on August 14th?
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