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On the List
Category:
(dance style) Street Cheer
Source: Azizi Powell Collection, 1996 {Pittsburgh, PA, early
1980s, Tazi Powell}
Group On the List
On, on the list
I saida on the list
On, on the list
Soloist #1
Well, Linda is my name
and I’m first on the list
and I got a little story
that goes like this.
One or more persons
in Group
(Kick it!) optional
Group &
Soloist Put your hand up in the air
like ah Coca Cola and ah Root Beer!
Kick off your shoes
and relax your feet
and move your body
to Linda’s beat. (soloist
#1 says “to MY beat”)
(The soloist and group perform beat pattern #2
(see below) and then the entire chant begins again with the next soloist)
“On The List” is an example of a dance style
street cheer that was performed in the 1980s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I collected the chant
in 1995 from my daughter, Tazi Powell.
African American girls usually do street
cheers for
their own enjoyment. These
chants are a way that girls can show off and improve their “steppin”
and dancing ability. Street
cheers use an
alternating call & response format.
The group decides the order of the soloists before the cheer starts by
who is the fastest person to call out “first”, “second”,
“third” etc. The words to street cheers are chanted (half spoken &
half sung) in an alternating “call & response” style. Usually call & response songs have one soloist (lead
singer) throughout the whole song. The
soloist sings or chants something and then the rest of the group repeats
the soloist’s words or briefly sings something else.
With alternating call & response, the members of the group take
turns being the soloist. When
the person has had her turn as soloist, she chants again with the group
and the next soloist has her turn. Girls
usually stand in one or more horizontal lines when they perform sidewalk
chants. Soloists don’t
usually step out of the line for their solos.
The term "steps" is also used as a
referent for street cheers.
“Steps” are heavy bass sounding stomps that are made with the
feet falling flat on the ground. They are not like the heel/toe sounds made by tap dancing.
In the year 2004, formal “step” groups of children and
teenagers are becoming more and more common.
Some of these groups are associated with churches, high schools,
middle schools, and community groups.
Often representatives of Black (university based) Greek letter
fraternities and sororities serve as organizers, consultants, and coaches
for these groups. They also serve as judges for the formal
competitions that are called "step shows", the same term that is used for
the public competitions that involve sorority against sorority and
fraternity against fraternity.
The main beat for “On The List” is “stomp,
clap stomp stomp clap”. You
make a stomp with your right foot, clap, then do two stomps with your left
foot, clap and then start all over again.
The second beat for “On The List” is done when the soloist and
the group says “and move your body to Linda’s beat”.
Beat #2 goes like this; stomp stomp clap hit hit hit hit clap clap.
“Hit” means to lightly hit your thighs.
Performers start facing front and then perform this routine first
turning to the left, then to the back, then to the right, and then to the
front again. When they get to
the front, they are ready to start the entire chant over again with the
next soloist. |
