Pink Diamonds Pink is associated with all that is feminine and that includes both its positive and negative characteristics. One such negative trait could be the concept of female weakness. We accordingly associate ourselves with diamonds because we want to counter that misconception; Diamonds are strong and everlasting; natural and brilliant...and so are all women.  The Pink Diamonds & ONYX Step Team wins 1st Place at the Hot 97.1 Battle in the Apple Step Team Championship March 2008!!!         The Brothers of ONYX wins 1st Place at the Stomp The Park Step Competition January 2007!!! The Pink Diamonds Step Team wins 1st Place at the Phi Beta Sigma's "Step Ya Game Up" Youth Competition February 2007!!! "You guys are with out a doubt the best youth step team I have EVER seen. The display of pure talent was better than most collegiate teams on the scene right now. Keep doing what you doing because it will definitely pay off for your organizations. People are still raving about the flawless performance the Pink Diamonds displayed!! And who ever choreographs those steps needs a HUGE pat on the back!!!! Thanks again for participating in our event, teams like yours set the bar for the art of stepping. " - Seye Charles, Member of Phi Beta Sigma, Inc. XI PI Chapter - www.demboyzstep.com The Pink Diamonds Step Team wins 2nd Place in the Hot 97.1 Battle in the Apple Step Competition March 2007!!! The Pink Diamond's Stud Step Team performed on MeTV Nickelodeon March 2007!!! "I loved the girls. And I am absolutely inspired by the dedication and time you (Alicia) and Melissa give to them. No cause is of greater importance to me then women like us taking responsibility for the girls STEPPING into our shoes." -Risa Tanania, Me:TV for Nickelodeon  ONYX, Pink Diamonds & Pink Diamonds' Studs at the New York Urban League Football Classic at Giants Stadium, NJ September 2007!!!

Our Purpose Pink Diamonds Steppers Association, Inc. (PDSA) is a non profit organization founded by a Malissa Wilson and Alicia Harrison from Staten Island, NY who believe in Unity for Power and Purpose for the young people in the community. Through this association they provide an after school and summer program that teaches young people to have confidence and self awareness through performing arts and community service. Today young men and women are faced with many obstacles in their daily routine. The reason why PDSA was developed was to provide a positive after school and summer program in place of their unoccupied time. In the community they acknowledge the following problems: • No free or affordable after school and summers programs for young women & men • Teen pregnancy, substance abuse, depression, violence, peer pressure, etc. • Few or decreasing positive role-models in their lives to motivate them • Dropping out of school due to peer pressure or the inability to perform well academically Mission To uplift, enlighten and motivate young people who have limited support or minimum resources in their school and communities. We accomplish this by providing a free performing arts program known as Stepping that will guide them towards leadership, creativity and community outreach. What is Stepping? Pink Diamonds Steppers Association, Inc. is designed to teach kids an African-American traditional movement known as stepping. Stepping is an African art form that uses the body as a percussion instrument. A step team will collectively stomp there feet and clap their hands to a base beat along with moving into different formations. This program will teach kids how to use their hands and feet in a rhythmic motion to send positive message of strength, unity and cultural identity. Step Team Programs The steppers part of the program showcase their skills at community events and step show competition. They do volunteer work and community outreach. They must maintain a C average to stay active on the team. No prior experience is necessary to tryout for the step teams. Below are the different step team divisions: The Pink Diamonds Step Team    Pink Diamonds Studs Step Team   The Brothers of O.N.Y.X. Step Team (Outstanding and Noble Young Men of Xcellence)  The Pink Diamonds Steppers Association, Inc. are known for our innovative choreography, costume designs and overall performance. They are committed to nurturing the minds and spirits of the young people they look to service. With the support of the community PDSA will continue their efforts assisting the young people overcome life's impediments and to achieve their goals.        Onyx Steppers at the Pink Diamond's Holiday Celebration and Toy Drive  December 2006   What is Stepping? "At first try, to describe what stepping is can be rather difficult. Some are prone to equate it with the theatrical show "Stomp," while others consider it a branch of military drill or dancing. While these references help initial understanding, step performances have unique qualities on their own right. Basically, a step is a collection of rhythms made by using the hands and feet, and occasionally props such as canes. Responding to chants or calls, a team stomps their feet or claps hands to a base beat along with moving into different formations. In actuality there is more to stepping than this and the rich history of this form of entertainment is rather interesting.   Stepping has its beginnings in the early African American slave community as a means of communication and keeping hold of traditional aspects of the denied culture. It served mainly as a link back to African tribal dance, which in many areas was prohibited. Call-and-response folk songs helped the slaves to survive culturally and to spread word about important matters, such as the Underground Railroad. Several generations later, Black World War II veterans added in a military march theme to the sounds, while Motown grooves and Hip-Hop energy added more entertainment and increased the appeal of the art form. In the late 1960s, historically Black fraternities and sororities began embracing stepping at college campuses. Previously using step shows as a rite of passage for pledges, the Black Greek letter system has a strong role in the college step scene. There are often specific steps to each chapter and sometimes the groups playfully mock each other's styles during competitions and benefits. Overall, stepping in these organizations provides an enjoyable bonding experience. Younger audiences have created teams at the high school level as well." -Joseph Bufanda The History of Stepping The following are excerpts from "A History of Stepping," by Elizabeth C. Fine, Ph.D., from her book Soulstepping: African American Step Shows (copyright 2003) published by the University of Illinois Press. People give widely varying answers to the simple question, when and where did stepping begin? Some say that they have always stepped and that it goes back to Africa. Others relate it to African American fraternity and sorority pledging rituals of marching online, and date it to the 1940's. While many African movement and communication patterns are clearly evident in stepping, the tradition was forged on college campuses in black fraternities and sororities out of the African heritage of speech, song, and dance. The ritual performance of stepping in black Greek-letter societies may have developed in part from African American Masonic rituals. The first initiation held by Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, founded in 1906, was held at the Masonic Hall, also known as Odd Fellows Hall and Red Men's Hall. During the initiation "the lockers of the lodge were broken open in order that attire more suited to the purpose than civilian clothing might be secured." This close association with an African American Masonic society suggests that early fraternities and sororities may have modeled some of their rituals on those of other secret societies of the time. Since, as Jacqui Malone demonstrates, mutual aid societies were known for their competitive drill teams, it is possible that the black Greek-letter society tradition of marching online, from which stepping likely evolved, may have been borrowed from such societies. Indeed, noting the popularity of drill teams in African American communities, Lawrence Ross says, "I would assume that stepping actually came from drill team movements." The earliest written reference to public ritual dancing by pledges at Howard University that might indeed be stepping appears in the 1925 student newspaper, the Hilltop. In an article called "Hell-Week," Van Taylor describes the pledging activities of Omega Psi Phi and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternities: "What desire is this that will cause young men, stalwart of frame, and rugged of heart and mind, demurely and aesthetically to dance about the campus as if in time to the fairy Pipes of Pan?"3 The phrase "the fairy Pipes of Pan" suggests that the men are performing to a music or beat that only they can hear; as in stepping, there is no accompanying music. Since the Hilltop only began publishing in 1924, it is difficult to know exactly when pledges performed movements that would be considered stepping. But it is interesting to note that within 18 years of the formation of the first Black Greek-letter society, a public ritual dance associated with pledging was performed by two fraternities at Howard University. Stepping evolved at different rates on various campuses. Kappa Alpha Psi member Thomas Harville, who pledged at West Virginia State College, says that in 1940, his fraternity participated in group singing, often while they were holding hands or moving in a circle, but they did not step. Another Kappa said that his fraternity began stepping in the 1940s and developed stepping from marching on line while pledging to the group: "Through the years brothers added singing and dancing, and in recent years we started using canes when we step." This information corroborates a claim in a Wall Street Journal article that stepping's "synchronized and syncopated moves date back to the 1940s, when lines of fraternity pledges marched in lockstep around campus in a rite of initiation." Julian Bond reports that he could remember stepping contests when he was a student at Morehouse in the late 1950s. Alpha Kappa Alpha member Anne Mitchum Davis, who pledged at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, states that her sorority did not step in the 1950s, but they did do "synchronized dancing," which was more like ballet, than the "stomping kinds of things" that men did. Fraternity alumni working at Virginia Tech in 1984 recall that at their various colleges and universities in the 1950s, blocking or stepping was mainly a singing event, with some movement, usually in a circle. 'width' is a duplicate attribute name. Line 1, position 37.