It's a steamy summer night in Dorchester and the air conditioner at the Carver Den is on the fritz, so a few industrial strength fans will have to suffice. It's Thursday, and that means heat or no heat The Original Steppers of Boston have some dancing to do.
Since 2006, this group has brought Chicago-Style Stepping to dance floors all over Greater Boston. Each Thursday, they hold a lesson and open dance at the Carver Den on Talbot Avenue in Dorchester.
If you haven't hear of Chicago-Style Stepping, you're not alone.
"Chicago-Style Stepping is an urban ballroom dance. Primarily done by African Americans. It was started in Chicago all by African Americans," explained Scott Freeman, one of the group's co-founders. "It derived from things that our parents did: the Lindy Hop, swing dance, the Jitterbug. And what the stepping did is just simply slow it down."
Just like the dances from which it sprang, stepping is an eight-count partner dance, with a leader and a follower — most of the time. There are a few variations that are unique to stepping.
"Two males can do it together. You can also have a trio, which is often one male and two females in the follow position," said Freeman.
So how exactly did a dance so firmly rooted in Chicago, end up here in the Hub?
"A gentleman named Kevin moved here from Chicago. And he started stepping classes," said Valerie Wales, another of the group's co-founders. "At that time it was maybe five or six people and then it slowly grew. Eventually he went back to Chicago, and we decided that we wanted to keep it going."
And keep it going they did, growing the group into the hundreds. One reason they've been able to do so that the dance is versatile and can be done to all kinds of music - from Count Basie to The Temptations to R. Kelley.
"We dance to just about anything. It’s mostly jazz, R&B, a little bit of hip hop, but the beat count is not too fast," said Freeman.
And that emphasis on slower music means that people of all ages can shake their thing. Freeman said that a lot of seniors are taking to stepping — and can dance elegantly into their 70s, 80s and even their 90s.
For the Original Steppers of Boston, the dance is as much about building friendships as it is about perfecting their "Triple Left" or their "Old School Right" (both stepping moves).
"We’re a community. We’re a social club," said Wales. "We have little meetings to see what people are thinking, and every year we have an appreciation party for the group to let them know that we appreciate them and their support."
Sidney Holtzclaw, a bus driver from Boston, "caught the Stepping bug" when his wife dragged him to a class. He said he likes it for the exercise and the camaraderie — describing the groups as "a brand new family."
Stoughton's Tracey Sisco is one of the group's instructors. She thinks the only reason more people aren’t stepping, is that they simply don’t know about it.
"It’s a beautiful dance," she said. "We dance to all the music we grew up and loved. And you listen to the music differently now. You listen to the instruments, the beat of the song. It's just a great flow."
That great flow has recently hooked Kim Langhorne, who described herself as newly "addicted" to stepping. The first time she saw it, she was transported to another time. "The whole – swinging around – My dad would like take me and swing me as a child and it really brought back a lot of memories of that for me."
Scott Freeman's Playlist — Five Great Songs for Stepping:
Mine All Mine by The Stylistics
Stay by The Temptations
Sweet Summer Days by Peabo Bryson
Baby, If You Only Knew by Jeffrey Osborne
Heaven's Girl by R Kelley
So Fresh by Will Smith
