Brittany Delany ’09
grew up improvising pop and hip hop movements in her family room. Now she’s
danced her way into Hot Stepz Magazine as a writer and publication
promoter.
Delany,
a choreography/performance dance major and French studies major, voluntarily
works for the urban dance publication, subtitled "the soul of dance." The
magazine focuses on modern-day dance styles such as Krump, Caribbean, dance
hall, stepping, hip-hop and B Boy B Girl while emphasizing the historical
culture of dance movements.
“I am very committed to the heart of this
magazine,” Delany says. “Hot Stepz is for people of all ages and
cultural backgrounds who have an interest in all kinds of dance. It provides
a platform to support those in the performance arts and it explores dance
histories.”
 The
magazine debuted in January and featured an interview with Shane Sparks,
choreographer for the MTV Music Awards and for the hit show So You Think
You Can Dance. Other articles included a biographical account of Katherine Dunham, a history of
Flamenco dancing; and a fashion spread and interview with Francesca Harper,
who plays on Broadway in “The Color Purple" musical. The magazine’s primary
consumers are men and women of all ethnic backgrounds between ages 16 and
40.
Hot Stepz Magazine was visualized by 13-year-old Neeca Wilder and her
mother, publisher J. Lynda Blake, in Dorchester, Mass. last year. Their goal
was to create a publication that would help to give deserving dance pioneers
and aspiring artists national exposure by capturing their talents in each
issue. Delany befriended the mother-daughter duo and instantly offered to
help promote the magazine and its dance-culture events.
In June 2007, Delany helped organize the
Hot Stepz Freestyle Dance
Party and freestyle dance competition in Boston, and the Hot Stepz-sponsored
“Liquid Steel” dance audition in Cambridge, Mass. in July. The events
welcomed all styles of dance from ballet, jazz, tap and hip-hop to
Caribbean, krump and B Boy. More recently, the Hot Stepz-sponsored dance
crew ‘Status Quo’ has been successfully competing for the top spot in MTV’s
America’s Best Dance Crew.
In addition to working on the promotional aspect of the magazine, Delany
also writes for the publication. She’s written about the 2008 Leap Year
Dance Marathon, hosted by Rozann Kraus of the Dance Complex in Cambridge.
And she’s interviewed Janille Hill, the leader of the step team ‘A Chosen
Few’ to write about stepping.
“It was very interesting to learn that stepping originates from slavery,
when slaves would use percussive foot stomping and hand clapping as a way to
communicate. African American fraternities and sororities developed and
popularized this form,” Delany explains. “We have a great step group here
too—WEStep.”
Delany’s interest in dance began at a young age, where she’d dance to
popular songs, and dabble with moves to Caribbean and African beats. In
seventh grade, at the Milton Academy near Boston, she became a member of
their Dance Ensemble.
 “One
of my favorite performances was during my second year. We performed a dance
that was daring and experimental and just fun,” Delany says, who is pictured
at left. “It was all about being funky. We made our costumes out of bubble
wrap and duct tape.”
In high school, the budding performer collaborated with students and began
working with her teacher, Kelli Edwards. She experimented with modern, jazz,
dancehall, tango, improvisation and hip-hop styles. Naturally, when applying
for colleges, Delany sought an institution with a solid, world-renowned dance
program and student dance groups. Wesleyan’s dance major, featuring
technique courses in modern dance, ballet, jazz, Javanese, Bharata Natyam,
West African dance, among others, was strongly appealing.
She also enjoys the major’s courses on dance
composition and production, theory, dance history and improvisational
“site-specific” dance, where a dancer approaches a space not reserved for
dance.
“A few of us did (site-specific dance) right here in Usdan,” Delany
explains. “We took off our boots, took note of available spaces, climbed on
chairs, clumped ourselves into nooks and the window frames … then we’d take
an object like this chair, turn it on its side, explore it and extrapolate a
movement from it. I really love negotiating a situation in a short moment.”
Delany, who has a growing interest in the history of dance and writing, says
she’s not sure what she’ll do after Wesleyan.
“Whatever I end up doing has to be creative,” she says. “Creativity is my
passion.”
For more information on Hot Stepz Magazine, go to
http://www.hotstepzmagazine.com/
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