Edmond stomp dance team prepares for New York competition

Sometime after 5 p.m. Oklahoma time, members of the nine-member team will perform live on the New York stage of the Black Entertainment Television show “106 & Park.”

The team won the preliminary round of the Coca-Cola Step Competition last month, assistant coach Sonja Vaughn said.

This go-round, the stakes are bigger as the team has a chance to win a $10,000 scholarship and an opportunity to appear in, and be paid for, three pop music videos.

Win or lose, the team has emerged victorious, Vaughn said.

“Stomp dancing builds character,” she said. “It teaches them to have a stage presence and not to be afraid of crowds. These are girls who honor God and support each other.”

The dancing is a mix of foot and hand movements that combine in a rhythmic dance. Stomp, sometimes called stepping, comes from African foot dances and the intricacies of military exhibition drills.

The roughly one-minute, 15-second routine involves hours of daily practice, according to team member Jazzmyn Bryson — who has been with the team since she was a freshman and is now preparing to be a freshman at Cameron University in Lawton.