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HBCU Greek Organizations Carry On The Tradition Of Stepping During WVSU’s Annual Homecoming Step Show

Inside the Appalachian mountains of Institute, West Virginia lies one of the nation’s leading public institutions of higher education for African Americans. In 1891, West Virginia State University (WVSU) was founded, and it is full of rich history and cultural traditions. One of the school’s biggest traditions each year is Homecoming. The annual week-long celebration is filled with on- and off-campus activities. The step show is always a crowd favorite.

This story originally aired in the Feb. 25, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips recently attended the 2023 West Virginia State University Homecoming step show with her 11-year-old daughter, Jayli, and has this story of a tradition that is common at most Homecomings at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

Inside the old WVSU gymnasium, the space is filled with sounds of clapping, stomping, chanting, music and audience enthusiasm. Members of the public are in the bleachers surrounding the basketball court where the stage is set up.

College students representing each Greek organization on campus take turns entering the gym to a selected song or chant. Along with the undergrads are alumni from the 1960s through present day. After their grand entrance, the students take to the stage and perform a three- to five-minute routine. Everyone wears Greek paraphernalia — hats, boots, pins and sweatshirts — in their organization’s colors.

“You got Delta Sigma Theta walking out right now,” Jayli announces.

Delta Sigma Theta, a sorority that was founded in 1913, is just one of the sororities that is stepping today. As an HBCU graduate and Delta member myself, I thought it was important for my daughter, Jayli, to know this history and to experience this culture. Her being here is a rite of passage. Both of Jayli’s grandmothers are WVSU graduates. I am hoping she will one day attend an HBCU and be a Delta, too.

“Let’s see, I think they are about to stomp and clap again,” Jayli says. “I think they’re all helping each other out. That’s what I see.”

This is all part of a long tradition at HBCUs. The Homecoming step show is a way for African American fraternities and sororities to express love and pride for their respective organizations to a broader community. It is also a way for alumni and community members to reunite.

Kenny Hale of Charleston, West Virginia is at the step show today. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and was initiated during the 1970s at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

“Homecoming is when you see all this crowd come in and you get to see the people you knew and went to school with,” Hale says. “And just the enthusiasm that an HBCU brings with the power and the fellowship of scholarly people.”

Addison Hall of Cincinnati, Ohio is an alumni of WVSU and is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He says the Homecoming step show is a reunion.

“It’s a lot of people that you haven’t seen in a while showing back up, being in the same space that y’all shared and created all these memories at,” Hall says.

Members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity performing during the 2023 WVSU Homecoming step show.

*Photo Credit: Traci Phillips/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Shanequa Smith is from New York. She went to WVSU and now lives in Charleston, West Virginia. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

“I’m Greek, and so it’s just a joyous time, and stepping is part of our history. It goes way back. And so this is a part of that, where we get to stay connected,” Smith says. “And it’s always good to see different people actually taking up that throne of stepping.”

The origin and roots of stepping stems from African cultural traditions. Stepping can be described as a synchronized movement using stomping and clapping. During the 20th century, America’s Black fraternities and sororities played a unique part in the reemergence of stepping on college campuses. Almost three million members strong, America’s nine Black sororities and fraternities are part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, also known as the Divine Nine.

Up next to perform is Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority that was founded in 1908.

“They are walking out with little kids and everybody’s holding up their pinky for the AKAs,” Jayli says. “They are rockin’ this … They have a brown outfit with their state facts on it.”

One of today’s performers is Ashlyn Bell, a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority member from Charleston, West Virginia. Bell is a junior majoring in elementary education. She says part of why she joined a sorority was her memories of going to step shows.

“Growing up in West Virginia, I came to Homecoming all the time and I just always seen the community. Actually, my mom is a Delta, so I’m a legacy. And we would come down and watch the step shows and I just remember really enjoying it,” Bell says. “It was lit, it was just over-the-top loud. I just thought it was so fun and so cool. Just couldn’t keep my eyes off what they were doing, how they’re moving with their hands, and jumping and screaming. I just thought it was amazing.”

This year, Bell performed by herself, representing her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. She came out to the 1970s hit song, “Got To Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn, and early 2000s hit song “Knuck If You Buck” by Crime Mobb, doing a move called “the duck.” To do the duck, Bell says you have to, “bend your knees, hands out, head turned slightly up just a little bit. You know, you just lean into it.”

Bell wears black shorts, a red vest with Delta designs on it, sunglasses and spray-painted red boots. “The boots are actually traditional, something that past Alpha Delta chapter members have done for the step show,” Bell says. “So I’m gonna continue the tradition.”

Ashlyn Bell poses before her performance at the WVSU Homecoming step show. Her hand signal represents the shape of the letter “D” for Delta in the Greek alphabet.

*Photo courtesy of Kristy Lyles-Bell*

Clothing and Greek paraphernalia are a big part of the step show. Debra Hart is the director of Equity Programs at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and was initiated during the 1970s on the campus of West Virginia State University.

“When we crossed line in 1976, we all had to get a white suit made with a red shirt. And we got gloves and we got boots to match,” Hart says. “All 12 of us had a cane, and we were going to tap the canes and cross them back and forth.”

Kids are also a part of the community at Homecoming. Hart says she remembers going to a step show as young as eight years old.

“My grandmother would dress us in black and gold, because we’re all going to State’s Homecoming. When I was ten years old, I remember aggravating my family to stay for the step show,” Hart says.

Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips (back middle), poses with her family during the West Virginia State University step show. Family members include (from left to right): Brother, Danny Adkins — member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity — and his daughter, Ellie Adkins; son, True Phillips; and daughter, Jayli Phillips.

*Photo courtesy of LaQwanza Jackson*

After the step show, I asked my daughter, Jayli, what she thought of her experience.

“I thought the step show was really empowering and motivating. The people out there stepping looked really good,” Jayli says. “I loved it, it looked like a fun thing to do. I can’t wait to get there and do it myself one day.”

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The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.

Appalachian Square Dance Callers Making The Scene More Welcoming

Square dance calling — the spoken instructions said over the music — makes participation easy. But there are other aspects — like the prevalence of gendered language such as “ladies and gents” — that can make square dancing an unwelcoming or confusing space. One group of friends in the Appalachian square dance scene are taking action to make the tradition more welcoming for all participants.

This story originally aired in the Nov. 26, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Square dancing has long been a tradition in Appalachia, and many communities throughout the region still host regular dances. Square dance calling — the spoken instructions said over the music — makes participation easy. But there are other aspects — like the prevalence of gendered language such as “ladies and gents” — that can make square dancing an unwelcoming or confusing space. One group of friends in the Appalachian square dance scene are taking action to make the tradition more welcoming for all participants.

The Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia has been hosting square dances for decades. During their annual Old-Time Music Week in July, their outdoor pavilion is decorated with twinkle lights and paper lanterns that sway in the warm summer breeze. Dozens of couples gather and follow instructions from callers like 25-year-old artist and Elkins resident, Nevada Tribble.

Unlike the square dances you probably did in gym class, Tribble’s calls have no gendered language — no “ladies and gents,” and no “swing your girl.” And this is on purpose. Before she learned to call square dances, Tribble grew up dancing in Elkins.

“We always had the kind of dance scene where everybody dances with everybody,“ Tribble said. “You change partners after every dance regardless of who you came with. And I think that was also a part that made it really inviting and inclusive.”

Tribble noticed that the language of the calls didn’t necessarily reflect the people on the dance floor. Sometimes there would be an uneven ratio of women to men on the floor, and using “ladies and gents” didn’t make sense. Some folks might want to dance with a same-gender partner, whether it’s a spouse, a friend or a kid. And, of course, there might be dancers who don’t identify with being called either a “lady” or a “gent.”

Tribble thought everyone would feel welcome if callers used gender-free language. And by making sure there are calls any gender can dance to, the caller helps keep the dance floor full.

A multigenerational group of dancers follows Becky Hill’s calling at the Augusta Heritage Center in July 2023.

*Credit: Lydia Warren/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Tribble is part of a new wave of callers in the Appalachian square dance scene who are trying to make dances more welcoming by using gender-free language, as well as offering some seated and no-touch dances for participants who prefer or need these accommodations. They are sharing their new calls in a zine called Circle Up. The zine is a small glossy booklet with hand-written and illustrated instructions on how to call 17 inclusive dances.

Circle Up was curated by square dance caller and professional dancer Becky Hill, who mentored Tribble when she lived in Elkins.

“This zine just feels like it’s a large invite. Like, here are some people that have some idea,” Hill said. “We’re not claiming to be experts. We’re not claiming to be the only way forward. We are just the ones who have decided to start this conversation and to be a little bit more loud about that.”

A group dances at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center in Fairmont, West Virginia. They listen to instructions from caller Lou Maiuri in October 2023. Maiuri is a 94-year-old caller from Summersville, West Virginia, and one of his calls is featured in the Circle Up zine.

*Credit: Lydia Warren/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

For Hill, creating a welcoming space isn’t about losing touch with the tradition. It’s a matter of bringing out aspects of the tradition that are already present.

“We don’t have to change ‘chase the rabbit, chase the squirrel.’ We don’t have to change ‘birdy in the cage.’ We don’t have to change all these things,” Hill said. “It’s just providing options and invitation to callers to just think about ‘Can I just simply get out of the habit of saying swing her,’ or ‘gents to the center.’ You know, are there ways that I can just slightly adapt it and it becomes a little bit more warm?”

Becky Hill calls a dance at the Augusta Heritage Center in July 2023.

*Credit: Lydia Warren/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Of course, making square dances more welcoming is about more than just gender and language. It’s also about race. Musician, dancer and community organizer A’yen Tran has been working on creating safer spaces in the scene.

“The square dance community, or the old-time traditional music community, is pretty white,” Tran said. “The music does not come from entirely white roots. The banjo comes from Africa. There are fiddles in Africa, also. And the people in the community are still overwhelmingly white.”

Tran said she did a survey of people in the traditional music and dance scene and found that some people did feel unwelcome at jams, dances and festivals. She formed a diverse group including people of color, trans people, an indigenous person and a white male, among others.

The group created a set of community principles. They include guidelines like not using slurs and listening to others. These principles were illustrated and printed into a poster which is tucked into Circle Up.

“Our hope is really that people will take the principles, use what’s valuable to them in their own communities,” Tran said. “Bring them to your local square dance and stick them on the wall, or bring them to your local folk school and stick them on the wall, or your event, or if you have a camp at Clifftop or Galax or whatever festival you go to. You can just clip it up and say, ‘’This 10 by 10 space is my safer space that I’m welcoming people into, and these are the principles that we are going to try to stick by in order to make this a more welcoming community.’”

Tran, Hill and Tribble are excited to see square dances become more welcoming and, in turn, grow into spaces where even more people feel at home on the dance floor.

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Spotlighting Award-Winning Stories, Inside Appalachia

This week, we listen back to three award-winning Folkways stories from last year. First, we visit a luthier’s shop, where old musical instruments get new life. We also take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad and meet the expert crew who keeps its antique trains running. And we learn what draws people from hours away to Floyd, Virginia’s weekly Friday Night Jamboree.

This week, we listen back to three award-winning Folkways stories from last year. First, we visit a luthier’s shop, where old musical instruments get new life.

We also take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad and meet the expert crew who keeps its antique trains running.

And we learn what draws people from hours away to Floyd, Virginia’s weekly Friday Night Jamboree.

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

An Instrument Repair Ninja Shares His Story

Take a peek into the amazing musical world of Bob Smakula. *Credit: Zack Harold/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Since 2019, our Folkways project has produced more than 130 stories about mountain arts and culture. In this episode, we revisit three stories, which won awards at the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters Competition.

We begin with a story about luthier Bob Smakula. He’s made a career out of fixing old musical instruments, so modern musicians can keep playing them.

Folkways Reporter Zack Harold takes us to a place most people don’t get to visit: inside Smakula’s workshop.

Cass Scenic Railroad Looks To The Future

Built in the 1920s, the Durbin Rocket tourist train is a popular attraction for the Cass Railroad. *Credit: Lauren Griffin/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Generational learning is very important. In a visit to Cass Scenic Railroad, we hear from senior employee Rex Cassell, who passed away before this segment aired.

Cassell was a crucial part of why visiting the Cass Railroad in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, feels like you’re stepping back in time.

Folkways Reporter Lauren Griffin brought us this story.

Friday Night Lights Up At The Floyd Country Store

Robbie Harmon (back to camera) and Chad Ritchie (fiddle) of Wilkesboro, North Carolina, play music on the sidewalk at the Friday Night Jamboree in Floyd, Virginia. *Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

We also visited the hometown of host Mason Adams — Floyd, Virginia.

It’s this sprawling county, of about 15,000 people on the Blue Ridge Plateau, catty-corner to Roanoke and Blacksburg. There’s one stoplight in the county, and it’s in the town of Floyd — a tiny little place home to about 500 year-round residents.

Mason showed us around and took us to the Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store.

Marshall Student Journalist React To New Protections

West Virginia recently became the 17th state in the nation and the first Appalachian state to pass the Student Journalist Press Freedom Protection Act, which helps protect student journalists from censorship.

WVPB News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Makaylah Wheeler, the student news director at Marshall University campus radio station WMUL, and Faculty Advisor Chuck Bailey about how the law will affect their work.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Marisa Anderson, Tyler Childers, The Wayfarers and The Appalachian Road Show.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.

You can send us an email at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

You can find us on Instagram and Twitter @InAppalachia and on Facebook here.

And you can sign up for our Inside Appalachia Newsletter here!

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Choreography of Light and Glass — W.Va.’s Professional Dance Company

The West Virginia Dance Company, based out of Beckley, W.Va., often performs dances that tell stories about social or cultural topics in the Appalachian region. One of their recent performance pieces, https://vimeo.com/297156785/e3a17ea8e1?fbclid=IwAR2c4QK4mhSarO5m1zPE7ea6izsZJjzIUMdDm_30uaWTBJ8x88JsdbWPjiQ” target=”_blank”>“Catching Light,” choreographed by Toneta Akers-Toler, was inspired by West Virginia glassmaker Ron Hinkle. In a special report exploring folkways traditions, as part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Project, Jordan Lovejoy profiled the choreographer and her work.

Akers-Toler points out that, like dancers, glassmakers often have to move quickly and with precise intention to create their pieces before the glass cools and hardens.

A local of Raleigh County in southern West Virginia, Akers-Toler is the founder and managing artistic director of the West Virginia Dance Company, the only professional touring dance company in the state.

A few years ago, Akers-Toler’s son, Holden, gave her a glass vase made by Hinkle. Later, she met Hinkle, who mentioned the process of making glass is similar to her own craft. “He said, ‘so many people have said it’s like we’re dancing.’ And he said, ‘I’ve always wanted to, you know, see a dance about that.’ And I went ‘oh!’”

West Virginia Dance Company dancers fling white fabric during a performance of “Catching Light.”

“Catching Light” is not the only piece Akers-Toler has created based on some aspect of West Virginia’s culture or history. She’s choreographed pieces that explore labor history and the West Virginia Mine Wars, literature by writers from the area like Pearl S. Buck, the struggles of addiction, and even the relationship between people and the environment through modern dance.

“People laugh at me for saying this, but I wanted to share dance with my people, and I felt there was a need here. We had lots of excellent dance schools, but we didn’t have any really thing intensely in modern dance at all, and we didn’t have a professional touring dance company.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qrh0EYOU-o&feature=emb_title

Modern Dance in West Virginia

But there are challenges to running a modern dance company in southern West Virginia. Akers-Toler’s company travels widely to rural communities throughout the region, performing in a variety of spaces. Because there are not the same resources that larger cities have, the company often manages its own light design, sound production, costuming, promotion, booking, and grant writing, which is a similar situation for many other artists in rural areas.

While some may have seen building a modern dance company in a heavily rural space like West Virginia as a long shot, Akers-Toler embraced the unique challenges and rewards of the work: “I personally feel that I have had more of an opportunity to grow and to learn because I am here. I don’t know. I just feel like I would — and a lot of us — would not have gotten the opportunities to grow as artists if we weren’t here. Because the struggle also brings knowledge.”

West Virginia Dance Company dancers perform “Catching Light”

Being an artist in West Virginia also comes with other unique benefits like the low cost of living, according to dancer Donald Laney, a long-time friend of Akers-Toler and co-artistic director of the West Virginia Dance Company. “Where else can I make a living in the arts and not pick up any other jobs? Most people don’t think West Virginia would have something like this.”

Laney said telling a story through dance is similar to the process a writer uses, but instead of selecting words to tell a story, choreographers carefully choose unique movements. “We train our bodies, so our physical, our bodies tell stories,” Laney said.

‘Catching Light’

“Catching Light” is an example of one such story. On stage, six dancers wear glistening, iridescent pants to give the appearance of glass, and their bodies move through yoga-type shapes and angles to suggest glass transitioning from liquid to solid.

The score was composed by Dr. Richard Grimes and West Virginia storyteller and musician Adam Booth, who also narrated part of the dance. “Then, we roll the glass on a slab of iron or carbon. This is called marvering, and it is where the glass begins to take form.”

As Booth speaks, the dancers swirl into different directions across the stage, flinging pieces of flowy white fabric to represent the chaotic movement of hot, liquid glass as the spinning blowpipe pulls it from the fire.

The Human Element in Sharing Art

One of the key fascinations Toneta Akers-Toler had with glass was its human element: “In order to get it to live and become a bigger structure, the human being actually breathes into the art form, so part of their chemistry is always in that piece of art.”

The glass’ transformation from solid to liquid to solid again could only be performed by the body and breath of a craftsperson. Similarly, a dance only comes to life by the body and breath of the dancers, especially as they perform the story for an audience.

According to Akers-Toler, the audience brings the final crucial element to the dance. Without them, there would be no story to share, and modern dance is a shared storytelling event between dancer and spectator. “They would have a certain feeling about the whole thing. But at least 50% where they can bring their own experiences into watching it, and then they can have their own story.”

At a performance in February earlier this year in Lewisburg, W.Va., audience member Ethan Serr said that’s what brought him to come see “Love of Power vs. Power of Love,” one of the dance company’s latest pieces. “I know it’s very, a narrative, it’s very expressive. And so I guess I’m just trying to be swept along, swept along for the journey.”

“Just to watch it, to see the form, to see people of our state be out pushing this art form. It’s just part of capturing that magic and love of the art,” said Marcus Fiorvante, who came to watch the performance.

Despite the cancellation of their season because of the pandemic, the West Virginia Dance Company still maintains their storytelling and communicating with audiences through some digital performances online, and Akers-Toler says they hope to resume their in-person performances as soon as it is safe.

This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council. The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.

West Virginia Seeks Dancers for 2015 Festival

The state Division of Culture and History is seeking participants for the 2015 West Virginia State Dance Festival.

Directors from dance companies and schools across West Virginia are invited to enroll for the festival scheduled for April 17-19 at the Culture Center at the State Capitol Complex in Charleston.

Directors have until Jan. 5 to submit applications and scholarship and dancers’ applications are due by Jan. 12.

Officials say the festival showcases the talents of West Virginia dancers who come each spring to perform and take classes from nationally acclaimed dance instructors. This will mark the event’s 33rd year.

In Greenbrier County, This Country Music Dance Hall Takes Honky Tonk Fans Back in Time

By Dan Schultz and Traveling 219.

It’s Saturday night and the dance floor of the American Heritage Music Hall is crowded with couples swinging, stepping, and shaking to live country and rock ‘n’ roll music.

The music hall is spacious and makes a perfect venue for live music. Its walls are strewn with banjos, guitars, and photographs of early country music stars.

A lot of the folks in attendance are regulars, like Marjorie Hamrick, from White Sulphur Springs. “I’ve been coming to the music hall, probably about 10 years. I love the people, and the dancing, and the music.”

Charlie Massie founded the American Heritage Music Hall back in 1998. “We started, Jeannie Crane and I and Fred Bolt. The three of us started jamming in her family room, my basement, and Fred’s garage. We kept inviting musicians in, and we outgrew our basements and family room,” Charley remembers.

Charlie Massey founded the American Heritage Music Hall along with friends Jeannie Crane and Fred Bolt.

Tonight’s band is Nashville Departure, from up the road in Alderson, West Virginia. At set-break everyone in the venue grabs a seat at a table or files to the back, where a potluck dinner of pastas, pizza, and salad is served.

Randy Goodson sings and plays guitar and keyboards with the band. After Music Hall co-founder Jeannie Crane passed away in 2013 Randy was asked to become vice president of the organization.

“We’ve had this place packed. It’s a lot of fun,” says Randy.

Despite the older makeup of the crowd here, the music hall still draws lively crowds. In a way, Charlie and the music hall organization are looking to Randy and his wife Renee to continue the tradition of the venue and possibly help inject new life into it, too.

“The people here are just really nice. It’s so family oriented, it’s like one big family.”