Stepping and dancing are not the same. With dance, you move your body to music. With stepping, you are the music.
Ashley Holland, a Child and Family Studies junior, spends her free time stepping, making her body into a musical, percussive instrument along with dozens of other students. Together they make rhythms and beats, moving in synch to a pattern only they know and feel. They stomp, clap, slap, click. The rhythm is contagious.
"It's just like a rush," said Holland. "It's one of those feelings, like you get on a roller coaster and you're really scared, like you don't know what to do. But once you do it, you want to do it again. It's one of those kinds of things. I can't really explain it to you in the moment."
The Black Reign Step Team, a campus club, will be performing on March 29 for their seventh annual show in the Goldstein Auditorium at 7 p.m. The theme is the Harlem Renaissance, something Holland and her peers are looking forward to showcasing.
Holland joined the step team her freshman year, and has been involved ever since. While it's a challenge to balance school work and practice, Holland said the family bonds she forms with team members, along for her love of performing, make it worth it.
"There's just so many things going through your mind. You want to do it right, but you also want to have fun, you want to entertain. It's one of those roller coaster feelings. There's a build up and when you're actually going through the motion, it's great. And then after, you just want to do it again."
Tickets are on sale at the Schine Student Center box office, and are $5.
