[8/22/2010 SteppersUSA Daily News]
Can You Answer One Question?
By Markie Bee
National Chicago Style Steppers Day
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This time of year much of the focus of the Chicago style steppers community is on the upcoming World's Largest Steppers Competition (WLSC). We've endured virtually every type of controversy one can imagine during the contest's twenty year run. Every time I think we've pretty much run the gambit, a new type of controversy manages to pop up either before, during or after the contest.
Much of it is written off because there are elements in the community who just seem to live to find things wrong with any venture that shows even a modicum of success, but every once in a while some truly valid questions arise.
As we run up to the contest date, I thought it may be useful to run a series of polls to ask relevant questions of the Chicago style steppers community concerning the contest.
Each poll question will run for seven days and address some key issues concerning the contest and from those polls we might just get a better view of how the community as a whole feels about the contest and what may indicate the future of the competition.
Who knows we may just be able to create a new era of transparency to the whole concept of steppers contests and maybe even dance contests in general... It's all really up to you!
The first question I chose to ask in the first poll is

 

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essentially a question about how the Chicago style steppers community views the WLSC in general. I know there are groups (or factions) that take the contest (including the prelims, the rules and how they are applied, the judging and results) as seriously as if their lives depended on the results.
There are also groups (or factions) of people who look at the contest as a purely spectator sport like a contest in a club.
If you boil the questions down to their genesis it comes down to an either or situation (depending on your outlook). Either it's just for fun or it's serious business.
I realize there are many grey areas that can be addressed but right now we're just looking at two very generally opposed aspects of the WLSC. We can discuss those grey areas after we see where the consensus is based on the poll results. I'm sure the naysayers out there will be quick to criticize the approach but to be fair I feel it was best to leave the number of choices to two instead of the possible twenty or thirty possible questions I could have posted (yes I see the world in many shades of grey in this case). After all, who wants to wade through a bunch of possible answers when a general answer will do just fine? (poll below)
Steppers Weekend Update Sunday Edition
The Third Sunday brings a few monthly events and some picnics and barbecues as the summer of 2010 prepares to transition into fall. The Rat Pack is doing a picnic in Jackson Park behind the Museum of Science and Industry off of 57th St. in Chicago. Larry's Lounge in Harvey IL is planning a barbecue. For those of you newer steppers who haven't heard of Larry's... the place has been there for many years supporting steppers and I've seen some of the top DJ's through the years play in the place. The Touch of Class Steppers of Louisiana are at the Radisson Hotel in Baton Rouge doing their monthly steppers event while the Friends of DFW Steppers are at Inca's Café in Carrollton, TX getting their step on. Goodtime Productions are doing their monthly set at the Marmon Grand in Chicago and there's a new Sunday set at Showtime's Sports Bar in Calumet Park, IL called Groovin' on Sundays.
All other events tonight are regular weekly events and can be found on the steppers perpetual events calendar page.
When asked if there will be a 2011 National Chicago Style Steppers Day Event, The short answer is yes it will be an annual event held on the weekend of the second Saturday in August. Overall, the event was a smashing success in that we managed to pull the whole thing off. Once we've had some time to digest and machinate what happened over the weekend we will have a teleconference (probably after the WLSC) to discuss what went right and what went wrong and to entertain ideas for next year.

The J.E.P. Productions Hotter than July steppers contest is now on sale and can be ordered online here. Or Right Here!

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