School has already ended for many but on Monday, June 12, members of the Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) Step Team were hard at work, outside the closed school buildings, practicing in the light rain. They’re preparing for their final performance of the year, which will be at the Strathmore in Bethesda, on Monday, June 19, Juneteenth. The team will be featured in Step Xplosion, a performance put together by Step Afrika!, which is a D.C.-based dance company dedicated to the African-American tradition of “stepping.” “Honoring its rich roots in the African American fraternity and sorority experience, this show emphasizes the presence of stepping in the daily and future lives of students,” says Strathmore’s description.
Background
Black fraternities and sororities popularized step around the 40s and 50s, explains the ERHS Coach Richard Melvern, then “it kind of trickled down to the high schools and community around the early ’90s, when it starts getting to movies, like School Daze” [a Spike Lee directed movie released in 1988, depicting college fraternity life].
Dem’ Raider Boyz, was founded at ERHS in 2001, and has been working with Step Afrika! for about a decade now. Step Afrika! tours around the world, explained Melvern, but when they’re local the dance company frequently collaborates with the high school team.
Longtime Coach
Melvern was one of the original members of Roosevelt’s step team in 2001 and an early captain of the team. He graduated from Roosevelt and attended University of Maryland but continued to coach the ERHS team and has ever since.
Unlike most students who join the step team, Melvern started stepping prior to high school. At the age of 7 he was part of his church step team. “I’ve been stepping all my life pretty much,” he told the News Review. When he began attending ERHS there was a female step team but no boys team. In his junior year he helped change that and now the team is finishing its 22nd season. They’ve earned four national championship titles and have had 12 undefeated seasons, winning first place in every competition they’ve entered in the area since 2001. “These guys work hard,” says Melvern, “and in the classroom as well. The team GPA is above a 3.5 – all of them – they’ve put in a lot of work.” The team also has a 100 percent graduation rate.
“Something that’s very unique about stepping,” says Melvern, “especially in our area … is that usually all the guys that join the team have never stepped before,” because there aren’t step teams in the local middle schools or for younger children. It’s a hurdle they have to overcome, he says. “Every year we’re starting all over again,” he told the News Review, “but these guys put in a ton of work a ton of effort – as you can see school’s over for the year and they’re here practicing,” he said as the step team continued to work through their step routine in the rain nearby.
Practice, Practice
The team practices all year round, three days a week for three hours at a time. Students on the team don’t usually play any other sports because of the dedication needed to perform in the step team, says Melvern.
They held tryouts about three weeks ago and will be training throughout the summer, working on choreography and beginning next year’s competition piece. “During the summer we train to get [new members] conditioned and teach them the fundamentals of stepping – none of them have done it before – so we spend all summer teaching them how to step.”
The team’s captain, Ellis Hollingsworth, says the biggest attribute team members need is motivation to come back and to practice every single day. “When you first get on the team it’s very, very hard. Stepping is a very strenuous activity. It’s fun but it hurts a whole lot. But once you get past that point … you’re surrounded by everybody else who is also sharing that same experience. It builds that bond and everybody’s like, ‘we’re all tired and our arms hurt a little bit but it’s OK we’re going to keep going and we’re going to keep stepping.’ As members of the team that’s really the only thing you’re going to need, just the motivation to wake up every day and just practice that little bit at home, or do some pushups at home, eat well, everything like that.” After a week or two new members pick it up in terms of moving their bodies at the same time, says Hollingsworth, though he notes that strength may take a little longer. “They become greater young men and it builds their character and their personalities just by being on this team,” said Hollingsworth. They develop discipline and they see Coach as a father figure.
As a member of the team, Hollingsworth says one of the biggest challenges is “staying fit but also having the mentality to stay fit for the team because it’s very easy to go outside – Wendy’s is right across from the school – it’s very easy to go outside and eat a bunch of junk and then come to practice and laze around at practice. It’s very hard to be the guy that’s like, OK I’m going to take it upon myself to go and come to practice and do my best and then when I go home I’m going to do my best there and eat so that when I’m at practice I feel as well as I do.” As a captain the challenge is “to do as much as I can to make sure the team is doing the best that they can,” says Hollingsworth, who is wrapping up his second year as captain.
Covid Challenges
The team faced challenges during covid. They practiced outdoors, creating six-foot squares around themselves in the parking lot and wore masks and there weren’t many opportunities to compete or perform during that period. It was a particular impact for younger students, like the team’s co-captain, Cyrill Moreno, who has just finished his junior year. He wasn’t able to begin stepping in his first year at Roosevelt because there were no club activities due to covid and Dem’ Raider Boyz weren’t recruiting new members. At the first opportunity Moreno tried out. He was the only one to do so. “I was the only one who wanted to join during that time. So I was all alone,” he recalled. “During that summer it was hot and grueling work and I was the only one new to stepping surrounded by everybody who’s been stepping for multiple years, and they were all older than me.” “I was the only person who was new and I was surrounded by people who were not like me,” he said. “There is diversity but there aren’t many Asians like me,” added Moreno, who found that being the first student to join after covid meant he faced an age gap and experience gap, as well as a cultural difference. But the team was kind and encouraging, he said. He became even more active, began running further and changed the way he was eating, giving up chips and soda. With dedication he was able to rise to the level of the teammates he admired and eventually began teaching new members who were in the position he remembers so well.
Hard, Fast Work
“You’ve got to work so hard, so fast, so you have a lot of doubts at first,” says Grayson Hough, who joined the team in September and admits to contemplating leaving in the early weeks. “But once you get it, you get it,” said Hough, who had to give up track to make time for the step team.
“Summer practice is absolutely mandatory,” said Hough. The new season begins in the summer.
“Right after this show we’ll be getting ready for DRB 2024, which is where we start making new steps and getting ideas out so we can do as many performances as possible and make them as unique as possible,” explained Hollingsworth. Though they learn a primary step routine for their competition piece they then tailor it to various performances. They’ve created performances around themes such as Black History Month, domestic violence and recently a youth mental health routine for the Black College Expo at Bowie State. “We try to do as much to cater to the event that we’re stepping at, not just cut and paste the same routine all the time,” he said, “there may be similar steps and the same format and people will know our words but it’ll be a different routine just to keep everybody engaged.” The competition piece is the only one that stays the same throughout the year.
Juneteenth Performance
On Monday they’ll be performing the competition piece they’ve been working on since last summer. “I’m so excited,” enthused Moreno. He’s excited to perform alongside other step teams and also sees it as an important finale for the close-knit team, before the newly graduated members move on. “This is going to be our last performance with the seniors. Our captain was a four-year member. He was the one who taught me when I first got here. It’s going to be really tough having him gone. I really want this performance to be ending with a bang.” Strathmore is a space Hollingsworth respects as a musician, he says, and he’s excited for what will be his last performance with Dem’ Raider Boyz. “I just really want to make sure it’s the best that it can be,” he said. Hollingsworth is heading to Howard University this fall, an HBCU with a vibrant Greek life and plenty of opportunities to continue stepping.
Step Afrika! Step Xplosion at Strathmore is Monday, June 19 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online for $35-$75.