Excerpt About "Steps" (Foot Stomping Cheers") From The Book "Recess Battles"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancoocjams post provides an excerpt of Anna R. Beresin's 2010 book Recess Battle: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling. In that excerpt, Ms. Beresin describes "steps", shares her opinions about the cultural meanings and purposes of that recreational activity, and provides several examples of that activity.

"Steps" are another term for what I refer to as "foot stomping cheers".

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Anna Richman Beresin for her research and her writing. Thanks also to all of the girls whose play is documented in this excerpt.
-snip-
Portions of this book are included in these previous pancocojams posts: https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/excerpt-about-recreational-double-dutch.html and
-snip-
This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on foot stomping cheers. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/08/similarities-differences-between-ann-r.html for the pancocojams post entitled "Similarities & Differences Between Ann R. Beresin's And My Description Of & Conclusions About The Cultural Meanings Of Foot Stomping Cheers (Steps).

Also, click the foot stomping cheers tag below for other posts in this pancocojams series.

****
BOOK EXCERPT:RECESS BATTLES: PLAYING, FIGHTING, AND STORYTELLING
This excerpt quotes most of Anna R. Beresin's sub-chapter on steps in her book Recess Battles: Playing Fighting, and Storytelling (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, 2010, page 104-105, chapter 6: entitled "Work That Body, Oddy, Oddy: Lessons From �Old School Rhymes�; sub- section entitled "Steps"; African American girls, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[This excerpt is quoted without citations. The underlined words were given in that chapter and refer to emphasized words or portions of words.]

"[page] 104
In 1991, I saw four African American girls doing what looked like a dance step. �Is that a step?� I asked. I wonder whether the dance was choreographed or if they were improvising. �No, no, this is a step�. Step, clap, rock, clap, step, clap, rock, clap, They rocked gently back and forth, clapping their hands lightly on the off beat. At first they sang quietly, but it built into a roar."

Pump It Up
Words -------------------------------------------------Basic Motion
Pump pump pump pump pump it up------------- tap palms around the circle to start
Pump pump pump it up ---------------------------- step clap rock clap [2x]
Well, my name is [player�s name] -------------------------step clap rock clap
Pump it up --------------------------------------------step clap rock clap
That�s what they call me ---------------------------------step clap rock clap
Pump it up -------------------------------------------[repeat]
My sign is [astrological sign]
Pump it up
And I can work that body oddy oddy --------------shake and improvise
Make sure you don�t hurt that body
Pump pump pump pump
Pump it up
(1992)

[page] 105

[musical notation for the �Pump It Up� step is given here]

The phase pump it up appears in several recordings, including "Pump Up The Jam" by M. Kamosi and T. De Quincy from 1989. Each girl gets a chance to say her name and her astrological sign and work her body. The phase pump it up appears in several recordings, including "Pump Up The Jam" by M. Kamosi and T. De Quincy from 1989. Each girl gets a chance to say her name and her astrological sign and work her body.

Stepping is the African American polyrhythmic hand clapping and foot stomping that is a circle or line game, often with call-and-response singing and turn taking. A proud tradition at many predominately African American schools and among African American groups at predominately white institutions, steps are akin to cheerleading and a cousin to both hand clapping and marching. [13] The steps performed in the Mill School yard exclusively concerned the body, skill, and the complex role of being an attractive young woman. They involved singing, clapping, stamping feet, and improvising with other steppers. Although professional or competitive steppers are both male and female, only girls engaged in stepping on the playground. The rhythms are complex and syncopated, and the formation is typically a small circle. In most cases, each stepper is introduced by name and given a chance to perform a solo move.

Unlike rope rhymes, step lyrics tend to be overtly sexual. Steps were taken much more seriously than hand-clapping games, which usually ended in laughter. [14]. Some traditional step themes involve ritual insults: poverty, physical ugliness, stupidity, and promiscuity. [15]. Rarely recorded

[page] 106
among females, especially young females, ritual insults are a way of practicing coolheadedness about the body in an insulting world. [16]. Originally expurgated from collections of children�s lore, taboo rhymes such as these have been recorded for what they are: honest reflections of the issues with which real children wrestle.

The girls who did double-dutch jump rope also did steps, which were exclusively the domain of African American working-class girls at the Mill School, those who traveled by bus from less affluent neighborhoods. It was a secret repertoire of the body, sometimes labeled �nasty� by the girls themselves. But when they were assured they would not get in trouble for singing to me, they sang louder than they did for �Big Mac� or any rope rhyme. Stepping offered the girls a chance to improvise and �show your motions�.

Because the Mill School children considered steps special and rare, and because none of these steps has previously been recorded, I offer their transcriptions into approximate musical notation. The jump rope rhymes have the tap of the rope to guide us, and the rock and roll numbers have been recorded in one version or another.
Shoo, Shoo Sharida

Words ----------------------------------Basic Motion
Shoo shoo Sharida ------------------------step, step clap, rock, clap
My name is Violet --------------step, step clap, rock clap
Shoo shoo Sharida

That�s what they call me
Shoo shoo Sharida

My sign is Pisces
Shoo shoo Sharida

And I can break it down-------------------------improvise

Shoo shoo Sharida
Real sexy now
Shoo shoo Sharida
Now take my goal post
(1992)
107

[musical notation for Shoo, Shoo Sharida]

Fly Girl
Words-----------------------------------Basic Motion
Fly girl, fly girl-------------------scissor feet, clap
Go girl, go girl -------------------scissor feet, clap

My name is Coco, I�m a supafly girl
I float like a butterfly
Sting like a bee
That�s why they call me

Fly girl
Go Coco Go Coco---------------------------improvise
(1999)
108
Hollywood
Words -------------------------------------------------Basic Motion
u>Hollywood got Meeca------------------------in pairs, in two lines, retreating
Hollywood got Meeca------------------------right rocks back, left in place
Hollywood got Meeca------------------------right in place, pause, clap
And always do----------------------------------repeat until the end

[Meeca]
Well, it looks like me got number 20
Watch the power of the money
if you see me on the street
Hey girl you better speak

[all]

Hey you think you bad

{Meeca]
Me? I know I�m bad

[all]
Hey you think you cute

[Meeca]
Cute fine sexy too

[all]

Hey you think you fine
[Meeca]
I�m fine I�ll blow your mind

[109
I got a man, he�s twenty-nine
Tic tac Paddy whack
Who you think you looking at?
A-B-C-D- Gonna have a baby

Reese�s pieces butter cup
If you next U wish you luck

[all]
Hollywood got Licia
Hollywood got Licia
Hollywood got Licia
And always do

[Licia]
Well, it looks like me got number 4
Watch the prowler at the door
if you see me on the street
Hey girl you better speak to me

[all]

Hey you think you bad

[Licia]
Least I pick my maxi pad

[all]
Hey you think you cute

[Licia]
Least I�m not a prostitute

[all]
Hey you think you fine
[Licia]
I�m fine I�ll blow your mind
I got a man, he�s twenty-nine
Tic tac Paddy whack
Who you think you looking at?
A-B-C-D- Gonna have a baby
(1992)
[page] 110
Telephone

Words--------------------------------------------------------------Basic Motion
Telephone tel telephone---------basic step: clap, step, clap as above, only slower
Telephone tel telephone---------repeat
Yo Tasha
Yo
You�re wanted on the telephone
Who is it?
A boy
I know what he wants
He wants my lips my tits -----------------pointing shyly
My grass and my ass
Telephone tel telephone---------basic step: clap, step, clap as above, only slower
Telephone tel telephone---------repeat
Yo Tasha
Yo
You�re wanted on the telephone
Who is it?

Your man
I know what he wants
He wants my lips my tits
[page] 111
My grass and my ass
Telephone tel telephone
Telephone tel telephone---------repeat
Yo Tasha
Yo
You�re wanted on the telephone
Who is it?

A girl
I know what she wants
She wants my man
Goddamn
She�s getting out of hand
Telephone tel telephone
Telephone tel telephone
Yo Tasha
Yo
You�re wanted on the telephone
Who is it?

Your ex
I know what he wants
He wants my lips my tits
My grass and my ass
(1992)

[page] 112
I Work
Words--------------------------------------------------------------Basic Motion
I wo-rk all year ------------------------------------scissor legs and land on beat
I wo-rk all year--------------------------------------slow hip sway, left to right on �work�
I wo-rk all year
I work! work! work!--------------------scissor legs quickly three times

Now watch Coco work her hips

She wo-ks all year
She wo-ks all year
She wo-ks all year
She work! work! work!

Now watch all of us work
We wo-ks all year
We wo-ks all year
We wo-ks all year
We work! work! work!�
(112)
-snip-
[page] 113 includes a musical notation for the �I Work� step.

****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
I intend to publish a post comparing Ann R. Beresin's descriptions of and opinions about the cultural meanings of "steps" with my descriptions of and opinions about "foot stomping cheers". I'll add that link to that post here when it is published.

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Related Posts