“When I used to go out, you had a date and you two planned on going somewhere and when you got there, there would be a lot of dancing going on,” he says. Men would don pastel-colored suits and their dates would wear sequined dresses to dance to one of the many types of ballroom-style dances popular in black communities in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

That style of dancing fell out of favor among younger people, but stepping and a similar ballroom-style dance called the bop remain extremely popular in parts of the Midwest — especially in Chicago, Detroit and Gary. “In Chicago, they call it stepping,” says Dave Roberson, guitar player for the group Al Hudson & One Way, one of three groups performing at the South Bend event. “In Detroit, we call it ballroom.

Stepping is a combination of ballroom and the bop.” Harper and a group of people from South Bend and Benton Harbor started attending the dances — called stepper’s sets — held at the Genesis Convention Center in Gary, as well as other events in the Chicago area. Harper says he became enthralled by the music, the dancing and the friendly atmosphere. Disc jockeys who play stepping music play a lot of music from 1960s-, ’70s- and ’80s-era groups, including Al Hudson & One Way.

Contemporary songs — including many that were made to appeal to steppers — also are included in the mix. “I didn’t think I’d find a place to go where people over 40 could go and have a good time,” Harper says. Harper and a group of local residents started an organization called the Michiana Steppers. The organization held Chicago-style stepping classes at the Charles Black Recreation Center. Those classes were taught by two Gary residents.