Stepping into the spotlight is not always easy, but for business senior Jamal Jackson it’s an annual event. Each year, he coordinates the Creighton University African-American Student Association’s annual Step Show. This year, the third year for the event, the show took place at Omaha North High School on Saturday, April 18.
It is sponsored by the CUASA and the Association of Minority Greek Organizations, and is open to any Greek letter organization that wants to perform.
Seven teams from the Omaha area participated, including eight Creighton students. Jackson is the president of CUASA and the event’s founder. He participated on a step team in high school and decided to promote the event after realizing many Creighton students were unaware of step shows.
“[Stepping] is where a team of people tell a story through body movements and other actions,” Jackson said. “When you put stepping into a show, it becomes a competition where organizations incorporate creativity and ingenuity into putting together a piece of art that will capture the full attention of not only the judges, but the entire audience.”
Stepping began in Africa as a ceremonial ritual, Jackson said. Today, stepping is performed by many groups including community organizations, churches and high schools.
Business junior Michael Beverly is treasurer of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, which won this year’s Step Show. Beverly says stepping isn’t difficult as long as you have rhythm and you’re coordinated, but winning takes work.
“I taught myself and learned in three weeks,” he said. “We practice day in and day out. [We practice] every day for the last two weeks leading up to the show.”
Each team has their own theme. This year’s themes included “Drumline,” “Put on Trial” and “Wizard of Oz,” among others. Team leaders makeup steps and the team chooses a song based on the theme.
“It takes hours upon hours of hard work, preparation and creativity to produce a show that both the crowd and judges will love,” Jackson said.
CUASA leaders said they plan to continue the event and were happy with the turnout this year. Jackson said it is important to continue the event because it sheds light on a little known aspect of African history.
“We put positive and influential collegiate greek organizations on stage and allow them to captivate the audience with teamwork, creativity and passion,” Jackson said. “We hope that this sheds light on this specific piece of history and that it gets high school students excited about the possibility of going to college and joining one of these organizations.”