The Rocket

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Submitted Photo The P.L.A.Y.E.R.S. Club Steppers will be performing on April 24 at 8 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room of the University Union. The club is the only stepping group to perform in the White House. [Click to enlarge]

SRU students will be able see what step dancing is all about on April 24 when the University Program Board hosts The P.L.A.Y.E.R.S. Club Steppers.

The P.L.A.Y.E.R.S. Club Steppers, which is the only step dancing group to ever perform in the White House, will be performing at 8 p.m. in the University Union Multipurpose Room.

The group has also have gone on tour with Alicia Keys, Usher and Ja Rule.

Shawnta Reed, the vice president of cultural diversity for the UPB, discovered the group at the National Association for Campus Activities conference. NACA is an organization that helps college students become more involved by giving them leadership opportunities. They host regional conferences for networking between students. She saw the group's performance at the NACA conference and said that it stood out to her as something different.

Reed, a 22-year-old senior criminology and criminal justice major, said her job is to bring diverse programs to SRU. She likes to look for "something different, things that people haven't really seen."

Additionally, Reed said the reason that she chose The P.L.A.Y.E.R.S. Club Steppers was because it was something diverse and fun to watch.

"They reminded me of the Cosby kids," Reed said. "But mostly because some of them were dressed in suspenders."

She also said that The P.L.A.Y.E.R.S. Club Steppers show their audience a whole new side of stepping that goes deeper than most would think. They aren't only performing for entertainment's sake, Reed said, but also to educate.

Reed said during their performance, the steppers explain that the "P.L.A.Y.E.R.S." part of their name stands for Participating in the Lives Among Youth to Educate and Restore Society. They will also explain how each of their dance steps was created. They have a message about how their dancing originated from slavery. When slaves weren't allowed to talk while they were working, they would use stepping to communicate with each other. The stepping that the P.L.A.Y.E.R.S. do is a more modern version of that.

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