Step Sing. The amazingly coordinated song and dance shows taught in less than three weeks.
Every January, groups across campus participate in eighty-person shows that tell stories through sharp formations, crisp vocals and perfectly in-sync dance moves. Each show is a feat in itself, in a format developed over 75 years of Samford’s annual tradition.
Evidently, a performance of this caliber requires excellent leadership. Every Step Sing group selects two or three directors, who put together the theme, storyline, songs, music tracks, harmonies, choreography, costumes and all of the other details that make a show possible. These directors are integral to Step Sing, leading groups of 60-80 participants to make ideas become performance reality.
Ava Edwards, director of Freshman Girls, accidentally applied to be a director the summer leading into her freshman year, thinking it was the application to participate. When she was asked to interview, she realized it was for the director position.
“I was like, you know what, I applied for the wrong thing but I’m going to do it anyways,” she said.
Jacob Norvell, third-time director for Dudes-A-Plenty, first applied to be a sophomore director, due to the encouragement from his freshman orientation leader and director.
“He was like ‘you seriously should check out being a director.’ And I was like, ‘I’m a freshman. That’s crazy,’” Norvell said.
When he found out who his co-directors would be, he decided to go for it.
“It immediately became something that I fell in love with,” Norvell said. “I love leading. I love getting to be creative.”
Directors begin working on their shows as early as a year in advance, and they work throughout the entire fall semester, before even having the members of the group solidified.
Most directors first focus on thinking of any theme ideas that are feasible.
“We literally came and sat (in the Caf) after the interview and we were like ‘Ok, brainstorm anything that comes to mind, write it down on a piece of paper and we’ll go over it,’” Edwards said.
The Dudes-A-Plenty directors do similarly.
“Even if it’s a little weird at first, we’re going to write it down and then assess it later,” Norvell said.
The sharp competition between groups means that they are in a fight against each other to select themes, storylines and songs. Since no idea can be reused or be similar to what has been done within the past four years, the list can be limited, especially for those who have the last picks.
Directors for each group have to present four to eight theme ideas, each with a script for the emcee skit, a rough storyline and a handful of song suggestions.
Phi Mu drew the second to last pick for themes this year and had to return to the drawing board when their most developed idea was taken.
“We put all of our marbles into one theme, and it was taken. So, we were kind of scrambling a little bit,” said Morgan Negus, a director for Phi Mu.
Negus is a first-year director of Phi Mu’s 2025 show, a group that won sweepstakes in 2023 and placed third in 2024.
Some of Phi Mu’s previous directors have been able to provide guidance and preparation for this year’s team of all new directors.
“The week after we were chosen, they like took us out to Jeni’s and sat us down and like kind of prepped us for what to expect,” she said. “We just want to do our best and make all of our participants proud and make past director’s proud.”
Each group tends to divide directing responsibilities, with certain directors taking on the roles of choreography, vocals, formations, logistics and communication.
Every group also has different methods of rehearsing, with some teaching music first, some teaching choreography and some going song by song through the show.
Negus shared that Phi Mu typically works through vocals for one difficult and one easy song, and they use the same method with learning choreography, to balance out the difficulty.
Freshman Girls, however, works song by song, learning the music and choreography to a song, one at a time.
By the end of January, the directors get to see how their efforts paid off.
“My favorite thing about being a director is seeing the work come together as a whole because we’ve been working on this since the beginning of September,” Edwards said.
As directors, they also have the unique ability to know the participants in a different way.
“There’s so many girls that would have never really gotten this close to if I wasn’t a Step Sing director, so that’s been really fun,” Negus said.
Norvell also expressed that he loves to see participants be excited for what they have worked on together.
“My favorite part of (being a director) is those relationships with guys and getting to see them buy into the show that we’ve spent time creating and see the excitement on their face,” Norvell said. “I really want to lead the guys in a way that hopefully is going to make a great show.”
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