Commentary: Ladies We Gotta Step It Up! Back
Jun 30, 2010
By Tracy Bivens (Imasteppa)
I’m planning another trip to Chicago in a few weeks because I need a break from work. I started thinking about what happened the last time I was in Chicago that kind of threw me for a loop.
What out of towners generally do on the Saturday before attending any major event is to stop in at the 50 Yard Line for a pre-steppers set warm up. Well, on this particular afternoon, two of Detroit’s Heavy Hitter males came to the 50 in hopes of getting their step on. A lot of times, we out of towners come to Chicago to dance with Chicagoans (go figure) instead of the people we travel with. BOTH of my male friends from Detroit, who dance just like higher end male steppers from the Chi, were turned down by several women that were sitting by the stage for no good reason. My over protective Mother Teresa self went over to one of the ladies just to see what she would tell me after I explained to her that my boys were confused and offended. I was very sweet and polite. She of course looked at me like I was crazy and said nervously, "Well, I …I was cold and hungry and I got in a fight with my man and…and…I just don’t want to be here and I’m finna go.” Now for a guy, it’s one thing to have a woman say "no” no matter what state you are from but the woman was asked by a Chicago Heavy Hitter less than two minutes after my question and she bolted out of her seat to run up on stage to dance with him. I’m sure this could apply to similar situations in every city in which steppin is practiced. Happens all the time right?
Well, after the double rejections, my boys came over to stand by the bar with disgusted looks on their faces ready to generalize all Chicago steppin women as fake and full of it. They had both said that this type of rejection happens all the time to them in Chicago but never in Detroit. On the counter part, some steppin men in Cleveland have complained about women doing the same thing to them from Detroit. Thank God Charnice Simmons came over and extended her hand to one of my boys for a dance and a short time later, Lady Margaret Fisher came over and got my other friend’s hand. The guys felt better after that and so did I. Now if these two very popular steppin women could come over and do that, then why can’t all women?
In the 12 years that I have been going to Chicago, the out of town women are generally accommodated with courtesy dances by the men…especially if you go to Club D Elegance on Friday nights and Donnie’s Workshop on Saturdays…you’ll get danced to death! The Chicago men seem to be on the ball in this case. However, we women complain all the time about there not being enough Tyks, Dres , Mykels, Tall Ricks, Feos, Herks, and Drews to dance with but do we take the time to dance with male steppers who aren’t "household names”? For any woman reading this article, you know how hard it is for us to sit all night and wait to be asked to dance. Then why would some of us turn around and reject someone with their hand out to step with us just because they are not recognizable? Is this the gauge we should be using to determine if a man can step? Should we be using a gauge at all?
Ladies, if you stand innocent of not committing these felonious acts in the dance world…then good for you. Keep helping to develop brothers. But if you are telling yourself that you can only dance with a World’s Largest Winner or "Heavy Hitter/A-Lister” then something might be wrong. Courtesy dances should go both ways. I have witnessed Drew (or insert the heavy hitter’s name of your choice) at a set before not able to come off the dance floor because he’s being pummeled by the women who don’t care how fatigued he is after dancing 10 songs in a row. They are going to get their dance in whether he’s half dead or not! These same women have passed up 4-5 male steppers who are standing around and observing this madness. Does that make sense? If each woman who considers herself an accomplished stepper picked out a "project” to work with, maybe you could actually be helping to build a future male heavy hitter! Didn’t it take patient men to help get you to where you are? I don’t know ladies…we say that we want a better quality of male steppers but I think some of us are going to have to develop a better quality of attitude when it comes to the dance.
What do you think?
