The hammering of shoe soles in a clear rhythm reverberated through the floorboards from two rooms in the Dance Arts of Bowling Green studio Monday. Sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha and fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, both from the National Pan-Hellenic Council, were practicing routines for the council’s upcoming step show, “Rock the Stage.”
The beige walls in both rooms were lined with collages of past dance recital participants in tutus. In one room, ballet bars line the wall opposite the floor to ceiling mirror.
Bowling Green senior Chasity Rodgers took ballet classes at Dance Arts for 13 years. Her 5-year-old daughter Amya follows in her footsteps under the same teacher, owner Martha Madison. Rodgers asked Madison if her sorority could practice in the studio.
“Ms. Martha really helps us out a lot,” Rodgers said. “She opens the door for us every night.”
And Madison is glad to have them.
“The whole purpose of my dance school is to give my students a broad view of dance,” she said.
The AKAs broadened that view when they came to the studio to teach Dance Arts’s performance troupe steps. Madison said the syncopated rhythms from stepping blended with Irish step dancing and English clogging to form contemporary tap dance.
The eight steppers from the AKAs have been practicing five nights a week since classes started in August.
Nashville senior Kimberlee Robinson stepped for the first time in last year’s show and enjoyed it so much she and fellow step-master Angelia Tutt choreographed the routine together.
Monday, the women ran through their routine, stomping the floor and slapping their thighs and arms. Some women wore heels, some sneakers.
And costumes? “That’s a surprise,” Robinson said with a smile. “But the steps are more important. We could come out in trash bags and step better than everyone else out there.”
Robinson said all the practices and the occasional late-night dinners at Denny’s afterward have driven the women closer.
“It’s definitely a good bonding experience for us,” she said.
Radcliff senior Desmond Thompson said the whole NPHC grows closer through the show, though the different organizations may poke fun at each other in the process.
“It’s not just a competition, it’s a gathering for the black community to come together with a positive spirit,” he said.
But competition does play into the show. The Alphas started practicing six days a week in June. For step-master Thompson, this is the last chance to nab the trophy, which his fraternity hasn’t claimed since 2003.
“It’s time for us to do something different, something innovative,” he said. Through his choreography, Thompson worked new flavor into traditional steps that have been passed down by the Alphas for decades.
“People who were initiated 20 years back will see a step they’ve done,” he said.
As for the secrecy of the costumes, Robinson said each group’s appearance on stage reinforces a theme, which they leave a surprise until the show.
During the Alphas’ practice, members stepped and stomped in matching shiny black dress shoes.
“We’re hard steppers, so we wear hard-bottomed shoes,” Thompson said as one of his brothers scraped the soles of his shoes so he wouldn’t slip.
The Rock the Stage step show will be at 8 p.m. on Saturday in Diddle Arena.
Tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door.
Reach Eileen Ryan at diversions@chherald.com.
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