The IU RedSteppers have been cheering on the Hoosiers for 42 years .
Distinct from IU Cheerleading, they are an auxiliary precision dance unit of the Marching Hundred marching band.
The 26-member squad dances on the field at every home football game.
“In 1972, around the time Marching Hundred became coed, then-director Fred Ebbs wanted to add a visual element,” Parker said .
Ebbs and founding choreographer Karen Bailey added a squad of dancers to the Marching Hundred and called them the RedSteppers.
Parker, the current coach of the RedSteppers, was herself a RedStepper her junior and senior years.
Not all RedSteppers start as freshmen.
IU senior Ali Linnemeier auditioned in the spring of her sophomore year.
“For me, the first audition was hard because I have to repeat (dance steps) a lot where other people can just pick it up,” Linnemeier said.
A RedStepper must be an IU student and have prior dance experience, stage presence and knowledge of technical dance moves. These skills are tested at the audition.
“We learned the school song, ‘Indiana Our Indiana,’ and then two other dances. One was a more modern routine, and the other was a kick line,” junior RedStepper Alex Etheridge said.
The RedSteppers practice in the Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse five times a week for two hours a day with no mirror and no band.
“You really just have to be flexible,” Etheridge said.
Because they are expected to learn a dance every week, the members must manage their time ?efficiently.
“Our coach, Janis Cooper Parker, does a lot of careful planning and mapping out formations. It really comes together around game time,” Etheridge said.
On game day, the RedSteppers arrive five hours before kickoff. It is the only time to practice on the field with the band and run the entire show.
A home game can be a 10-hour day filled with dancing and numerous costume changes.
Because the RedSteppers spend a lot of time practicing with each other, they develop a strong bond.
“We spend at least 20 hours a week together because we have practice for almost two hours a day, and game days can be up to 10 hours,” Linnemeier said.
While the RedSteppers are not given scholarships, they receive two credit hours as a class from the Jacobs School of Music.
“It’s always great as a team to look up in the stands full of IU students, and it’s definitely worth all of the hours you put in to be on the field at game day,” Linnemeier said.
