Bril Barrett and his older brother Donnell Russell don baggy clothes and baseball caps and glide, flip, and spin to hip-hop. But they do it while tap dancing.
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“A lot of young people weren’t into tap because they thought it’s only old people in tuxedos. So we brought hip-hop into it to bring tap into the 90s and give it a different image,” says Barrett. Steppin’ Out, as the brothers are called, have opened concerts by Hammer, R. Kelly, and the Boys, bringing tap to an audience that may have never seen the duo’s influences–performers from the 1920s through the ’40s such as the Nicholas Brothers and the Four Step Brothers.
Steppin’ Out hope to expand a movement they say is changing the art of tap dancing. “There are about 20 young, professional tap dancers nationally,” says Barrett. “We’re starting to change the tap standard to be funkier and more groove-oriented. But we always give the old masters respect. They like to see us messin’ with it. They changed it when they started, and we’re doing the same thing. It’s not a dying art form, it’s just changing.”
