New York-based dance group Soul Steps delivered two high-energy assemblies to Sandy Hook Elementary School students on Thursday, January 29 that had the students clapping, snapping, and even getting up to dance themselves.

Soul Steps specializes in the African-American percussive dance known as stepping, which involves using the hands, arms, feet, and legs to create polyrhythmic sounds.

This was not the first time Soul Steps visited Sandy Hook School, according to Sandy Hook PTA Co-Vice President Mariane Quadri.

“Last year was the first year that they visited, and it was so well received by students and their teachers — everybody — that we brought it back for a second year,” Quadri said.

So when students excitedly entered the school’s gymnasium Thursday morning, many of them knew what to expect.

That energy carried over when they gave the four Soul Steps members who visited that day, Maxine Lyle, Solomon Goodwin, Destiny Delancy, and Mark Ross, a big round of applause as they took center stage.

Lyle said they were happy to be back for another year and that they even had some new things to teach everyone.

She told everyone that there is a certain way people start in step: someone calls, “Steppers ready,” and the performers bring their arms out in front of them, touch their fists together, and shout, “Huh!”

Then came the first of many step routines, with Lyle, Goodwin, Delancy, and Ross clapping, snapping, hitting the floor, and stomping their feet on the ground.

Afterwards, each of the four had their own routine or activity to perform on stage.

Goodwin had students follow his lead and repeat his movements. Lyle danced and had students clap whenever she pointed to them during her routine. This got somewhat tricky for students, as Lyle went faster as the routine went on and even faked out pointing to them several times. Delancy put on some tap shoes for her performance, even spinning around quickly on her heels at points. Ross showed off his moves while stepping to the beat of music.

Lyle took a moment to tell students that what they had seen so far were just a few examples of what step can look like.

“When I came out to step, I [didn’t step] to any music. I had no music with me, I made the music myself,” Lyle explained.

She explained this is what step was like when it first got started on college campuses. African-American college students would get together in fraternities or sororities and they would stomp and clap with no music. Lyle said they made the music themselves to show everybody how proud they were to be in those groups. Nowadays, Lyle said many of them step to music and bring in different styles of hip-hop, tap, and breakdance.

“So steppers bring all these different styles into what we do now,” Lyle said.

However, Lyle said there is another part of the world that is connected to the history of step: South Africa. Lyle encouraged students to use their imaginations and think of a long time ago, when Black South African men were digging for gold. These gold mines were not only really hot and dark, but they also had water everywhere that made the men sick. They would get sores on their feet because the water was not clean.

Lyle said their bosses were not very kind to them and did not get rid of the water that was making them sick; instead, they gave them tall boots that came up to their knees called gumboots.

Since their bosses did not want them to talk to each other or make friends, the miners would hit the sides of their boots to make sounds and communicate without getting caught. Lyle said their bosses saw them hitting their legs and realized they could make money off of that, so they had the miners come out of the mines and perform for the community.

Goodwin and Ross gave students a firsthand look at what a gumboots step performance looks like. They went all the way down to the ground at points, hitting the sides of their boots to make their own rhythm.

Then came time for the students to perform a routine of their own. Lyle, Goodwin, Delancy, and Ross went onto the stage and taught students a routine that involved stomping, clapping, snapping, and more. Some students even got to go on stage to show off their moves to students and teachers alike.

For Lyle and her friends, they could not have been happier to perform for the students and teach them all about step.

Lyle, who founded Soul Steps in 2005, said she stepped in college. She called stepping a big social outlet for her.

“It was a way of accessing community, and I didn’t want that community to go away, to end. So creating Soul Steps is a way for me to keep that community alive, to keep tapping into that,” Lyle explained.

She looked for other performers like herself to share the message and history of step with young people.

“We’ve worked in so many different schools and communities, and being able to see students find themselves in the rhythm ... that education piece is just really beautiful and fulfilling,” Lyle said.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.