Over the course of the Cama’i festival weekend, the stage became well-acquainted with percussion in many forms — cauyaq hand drums to accompany yuraq, and pounding taiko drums from Japan.
But when Synergy Step began to perform, the Cama’i stage became the drumming. The four-person group from Anchorage stomped the stage in rhythmic fashion, percussive slams and claps accompanied with sharp lines formed by the arms and torso.
Step dance is an art form distinctly rooted in African-American history. Step has origins in the 1700s, when enslaved people were banned from using drums when slave owners discovered that the instruments were being used as forms of communication.
Synergy Step co-leader Kasha Smith said that enslaved people realized that the body could be used to mimic those same sounds, through stomping and clapping, to continue to convey messages of freedom.
“You will always have voice within your own body,” Smith said. “So it's just kind of nice to have that stillness and wholeness to know that, hey, I always carry a voice, and I also carry my ancestors on my back in doing it too. So it's just a really symbiotic experience all around.”
Smith said that Synergy Step was created exclusively for Cama’i. Smith had been in the hip hop group Flow Zone that performed at the festival last year. Flow Zone implemented elements of step into their routine, which caught Cama’i organizer Linda Curda’s attention. She asked if she could return next year with a step-focused routine, so Smith and performance partner Tey Moné co-organized Synergy Step.
“So we were like, absolutely. And you know, since step is a dance of freedom, I feel like every culture should celebrate that within themselves,” Smith said.
Smith said that step compliments the yuraq-focused roster of performances with parallel roots of honoring and carrying ancestors through dance.
Off the stage, Synergy Step led a workshop during the festival weekend.
In a buzzing Bethel Regional High School classroom, the four steppers taught festival goers a series of four-step movements with an Alaska twist.
“We try to make it unique to Alaskan animals and things that you might see on Native totems and things like that,” Smith explained. “So we used whale, raven, bear, and otter as a way to create different sounds and to kind of mimic the different motions that the polyrhythmic sounds of step use, which are hand flap stomps and spoken words.”
Fourteen-year-old Rihanna Brittain from Wassilla said that learning the movements in the workshop gave her a big feeling.
“Alive. You feel the beat and rhythms. I’s like you’re vibrant, and free, and it’s just nice. It’s really nice,” Brittain said.
Brittain attended the workshop with her little sister, Linka, who was particularly committed to being a grizzly bear.
Before demonstrating her best roar, the 8 year old said that dancing the bear-inspired moves made her feel “happy and strong.”
After some practice, the whales, ravens, otters, and bears were ready to put it all together — it was a percussive success. Later, the participants would be invited onstage to perform in the festival.
In a flurry of animal-inspired stomps, claps, and growls, a drum beat of Synergy Step and the workshop team’s own making filled the room.
