Drummers start the beat, and the drill team in their snappy gold and navy blue uniforms starts high stepping and chanting.  “We call it soul steppin’. We steppin’.  March to the left, now to the right.  We soul soul steppin’.  Clap those hands behind your knees.  That’s how we keep it poppin’.  You hear them beats knockin’?  Snap those fingers, stomp feet.  We’ll have your feet rockin’.  We call it soul stepping.  Twirl around. Tilt those hips up and down.”

And on it goes with routines that the Harrisburg Youth Soul Stepper Drill Team and Drum Line write and choreograph themselves.  Members of the Harrisburg Youth Soul Steppers range in age from four to 18.  They are from Allison Hill and Uptown Harrisburg.  “Kids from those areas are known for not getting along. But they do when they drum and step with us,” says Francine Burno, the director and vice president of the parents’ organization that guides the group.  

The 55 members perform with exactness – well enough to earn prizes in their category in most competitions, well enough to have had an engagement every weekend last August and well enough to charge a fee.  But they don’t.  Instead, they merely ask for a donation that goes toward the cost of traveling to performances, instruments and other expenses.  Yearly, they spend about $8,000 and accept invitations to Buffalo, NY and West Virginia among other locales to show off their precision.  Technically, the group is part of the American Legion Post 733 color guard, but the Legion provides no funding.  With membership fees at $40 a year, per stepper and drummer, the necessity of donations is much appreciated and key to the group’s future endeavors.

Sasha Daniels, 18, has been a stepper for six years.  She joined the team because her grandmother was instrumental in starting the group.  “It’s a positive thing to do – walking, stepping and drumming,” says Daniels. “It’s great because we go lots of places to perform, and we always meet lots of new friends.”

The four adults involved in the group encourage the youths to develop healthy physical and emotional lifestyles and take part in positive activities.  “Spreading positivity throughout the community is what it’s all about,” says Francine Burno. 

What could be more positive than marching for peace in the street from the Camp Curtin YMCA to the Capitol Building to meet other drill teams coming from a different direction?  Last August, this notion of positivity was put into action when the Martin Luther King Baptist Church Community Coalition held a march and rally as a call for peace in the streets.  “There’s an increasing rate of violence,” says Derrick Shields, Director of the Camp Curtin Y’s Black Achievers.  “We used to see several marches by various groups, but always one at a time.  However, now we put several groups together for the Unity in the Community rally.  It makes a statement that we’re bringing everybody together by going through the community in a safe manner.”

Drummer, Dey-Dey Kilgora, gets in as much practice as he can.  He likes the Youth Soul Steppers and Drummers because of the people he meets and the new things he learns.  “Drumming takes so much discipline that you have to love it,” he says.   

Jah’ques White, now eight-years-old, and has been a member of the group since he was four.  “I love stepping. We have fun and do a lot of routines,” he says. “I’ve seen videos of us, and we’re great!” HBG