(gentle upbeat music) - To step, you are in the moment.

You feel every beat, every rhythm.

It's kind of like eating chocolate for the first time.

So fabulosity.

- [Lacy] Stepping is a lifestyle.

I grew up with family members who step, and it's just what we do.

- [Ron] All around the nation, stepping is prominent in our African-American communities.

- Sacramento, Vallejo, Oakland then has caught fire.

♪ Ain't over baby ♪ ♪ There goes my destiny only is one for me ♪ - Stepping is a partner dance.

A social dance.

When you go back to the Lindy Hop, you go back to the Jitterbug, you will see the evolution of stepping in there.

(gentle music) - All my classmates laugh at me because as I improved, they was gonna know, what are you doing?

I use an executive chair on wheels with elastic stockings tied to them, and that's my lady's arms.

And the chair rotates and I rotate.

And that's how I practice.

- I love stepping because when I was young, all the songs were love songs, and all we thought about during the temptation days is just loving.

See, I'm 62 years old, I love the smooth movement.

I don't feel like doing all the back flips and the cartwheels and all of that on the dance floor.

- [Ron] The age range has been 30 plus up to 60, 70.

We do have some people who have gravitated to this dance and the music, even in their 20s.

- I brought my son, Arius, he's been dancing for about a year.

It's another generation I'm hoping that will come into stepping and that they can understand social dancing and learn to enjoy knowing how to care for a woman the correct way, how to hold her.

And that's what stepping is to me, when the man takes me in his arms and he gently caresses me, it makes me feel like a woman should, especially if he's good looking.

It's a three minute relationship.

- One two three, four five six, seven eight.

As a teacher, after you get to know some of your students, you find out that some of them are going through life changes like a divorce or loss of a child.

We come to dance so we can go home whole.

- [Lacy] I had previously had a stroke and I'm diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

I step for my health, I step to keep from being in the wheelchair.

If I can only do it for two years, I'm gonna dance the best two years of my life.

Dance like it's no tomorrow.