Of the 26 registered steppin' organizations in Detroit, The Steady Steppers have decided to take their act on the road ... very far away. The Las Vegas Weekend Jam II is slated to be held the weekend of October 3rd – 5th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Steady Steppers boast a workshop resume that covers 18 states including Ohio, Maryland, Indiana, North Carolina, DC, Illinois, Virginia, Delaware, Washington, Missouri, and Indiana to name a few. I sat down with one of the two faces of The Steady Steppers, Kammal Smith, to find out about this organization and what is driving them to national levels.
Tracey: First off Kammal, can you explain the premise behind the name Steady Steppers?
Kammal: We wanted to have a name that mirrored the dance that we teach. With steppin', as you advance you are always on a steady pace. Because steppin' has grown on a national level everybody is steady trying to increase their skills and knowledge of the dance.
Tracey: How long has your organization been throwing steppers affairs?
Kammal: My (business) partner, Larry Collins and I started in April of 2003 - that makes almost 6 years of instruction. We started out with a weekly dance class and had our first steppers set that year. Then we started traveling and doing workshops not only in Detroit but across the nation.
Tracey: Isn’t it quite ambitious to throw a set clear across the country? What’s wrong with throwing one in Detroit?
Kammal: We’ve done several events in Detroit. We just wanted to do some events in different states. We traveled and had our field trips and scouted areas but ultimately we decided to focus on Las Vegas. Las Vegas provides a city with a back drop of entertainment, gaming and fun so when people finish with the workshops and the sets, if they don’t want to go back to their room, they can go to the Vegas shows and other forms of entertainment in the casinos.
Tracey: How has the feedback been from the steppin' community in Detroit about you guys going so far away to throw a function?
Kammal: We’ve had a lot of great feedback and an overwhelming response from people in Detroit and across the nation that are coming. They think it’s a great idea and are looking at it as a dance extravaganza. We are at capacity! Completely sold out!
Tracey: It seems as if The Steady Steppers have had their hand in everything. Websites, newspaper coverage, T- Shirts, DVDs, CDs, workshops, social affairs. There doesn’t seem to be any area that hasn’t been covered.
Kammal: We want this dance to grow. We’ve always had the tag line “you’ll walk in but you’ll step out.” Our mission statement has always been to grow and enhance the dance with other groups in the city. Those are some of the things that help to broaden our horizons and spread this dance across the nation.
Tracey: Detroit has been steppin for approximately 8 years now but yet they still lag behind Atlanta, Indiana and California in terms of garnering support from other states? What are the Steady Steppers doing to bridge that gap?
Kammal: Well I don’t know how far under the radar Detroit is, but The Steady Steppers try to give our customers the best instruction that we can. When we go to Chicago their style is ever changing and we keep current. We want to keep the atmosphere healthy and fun. We have an open door policy to any instructors to come in from our local scene to the out-of-town visiting instructors. It’s because of that that we are still able to keep our camaraderie and support with a lot of prominent people in the steppin' community.
Tracey: What would you say your organization’s proudest moment was?
Kammal: This Las Vegas Weekend Jam II is going to be successful because of all of the alliances we have formed in making this event work. We have alliances not only with Steppers but also with Line Dancers, Ballroomers, Boppers and Hand Dancers. There are other groups that have put on different functions but the majority of them have catered to the steppers. The weekend will offer Hand Dancing, Line Dances, Detroit Style Ballroom, The Bop and Steppin' so even though a steppin' group is sponsoring this event we want the other dance forms to be exposed. We are offering something for everyone. Special invited guests include a Detroit Ballroom workshop being taught by Angela Scott (Upscale Dance Productions of Detroit), Line Dance Workshops featuring Sylvia Powell (S & G Productions of Detroit) and Aline Goodman (381 Productions of Philadelphia), and Stepping workshops featuring The Steady Steppers (Detroit) Steppers Unite (Seattle), and Flint X Factor aka Candace and Feo. DJ Cynsitivity (Compton), AJ (Philadelphia), Mellow Mike (Las Vegas) and Sweet Rock (Seattle) will be our host DJ’s.
Tracey: I understand that you have entered the WLSC this year. The last time you entered a World’s Largest Steppers Contest was back in 2005. Why are you competing again?
Kammal: I like to compete but I was always working and I wasn’t able to train for the other ones. This year I wanted to get back into the competition. I actually had fun back in 2005.
Tracey: Kammal, you are known to be the only male stepper from Detroit who has received tutelage from Dre’, Brian, LC, Keith, Cliff, Donnie and most recently Tyk Myn. How have you been able to intertwine all of these styles or have you?
Kammal: First, let me say that all of these guys are fantastic and I am thankful and appreciative of them for taking the time to help me develop and grow with this dance. I think when you start out in the beginning trying to learn the dance, you start out with one instructor and go to another and another because you haven’t developed your own style yet. Have I been able to mesh all of these styles together through time and practice? Now After you practice and go to these instructors you find your own style. I found my own and it keeps evolving.
Tracey: Any final thoughts?
Kammal: I’m just very thankful that Chistepper has taken an interest in finding out about The Steady Steppers. We aren’t looking for the limelight or anything ... at the end of the day we are exposing this art form just like it was exposed to us.
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