It’s late on a hot summer night at Garbeau's Dinner Theater, and the performance has just ended. The stage lights come down as the audience erupts in applause. The performers, glistening with sweat, move among the tables and mingle with the audience, graciously accepting the riotous acclaim. Finally, the noise dies down, but at the back one man in a stylish fedora set over long, rippling black dreadlocks is still whistling, clapping and carrying on like there's no tomorrow.
This is Pepper Von: dancer and choreographer, successful Midtown businessman and hero to more kids and adults than could fill this room. And this is his show. It's his concept, his choreography and most especially his cast. He's wrung from them their very best work, and now he's applauding them for meeting his lofty standards. And they crowd around him; it's a mutual love fest.
Von's choreographic venture Let's Go has received critical acclaim beyond Sacramento, and he's been approached about creating a road show. It's just the latest challenge for a man who starts every day with the mantra, "Do not let me miss the opportunity to be a miracle in someone's life today."
Von has lived in Sacramento for 30 of his 54 years, gaining national credibility for his dancing, kickboxing, aerobics, mentoring and speaking. He was a star of ESPN’s “Fitness Pros" show, has appeared in dozens of theater and music productions and has won a slew of national and local awards.
But first and foremost he considers himself a teacher.
He and partner Mary Wright opened Midtown's Step 1 Dance& Fitness more than 20 years ago. Wright was a hospital administrator, Von the creative type. It was a perfect match. "Our passions are so well defined," he says.
At Step 1, he's in his element. Direct, thoughtful and passionate, he's also good to look at. A bright red bandana is pulled tight against his head, holding back what looks to be hundreds of skinny dreadlocks streaming down to his waist. Black glasses frame intelligent and calm almond-shaped eyes. A white wristband that says "Pay it forward" circles his wrist. From each earlobe flashes a big diamond stud. A sleeveless white T-shirt shows off buff shoulders and biceps, emblazoned with handsome West African spiritual tattoos. A neck chain holding a cross and various tokens hangs around his neck.
"I make no bones about being spiritual," he says.
The studio around him brims with life; it's a happy, busy and purposeful place. In the front room, a group of energetic preteens is stomping out a hip-hop rhythm; in another room, elegant teenage ballerinas twirl gracefully. Adults just out of a cardio aerobic dance class mingle with parents watching their moppets' classes.
"The success of this business is because the foundation, the nucleus of what is Step 1 is heart," says Von.
Back at the beginning, he and Wright decided "we will never lose a relationship with people over a dime." And they love kids. "Kids don't scare us here," he says, leaning back and opening his arms. "C'mon, bring 'em."
"Everybody here gets along, everybody here loves each other," concurs cheerful receptionist Alli Phelps.
Serious dancers flock to Step 1. The Jabbawockeez dance team, winner of 2008, started dancing together here. Many of its past students have gone
on to professional careers.
Hannah Collins is a dancer in Let's Go and a longtime Step 1 student. She finds Von's energy infectious.
"You can be having the worst possible day ever and he
can make u forget it. He's one of those people that you know is in your corner," she says. "There's something about him that makes you want to give as much as possible."
Von grew up in Mississippi during the tumultuous early '60s and the civil rights movement.
"Growing up right in the heart of that has done some of the chiseling" of his character, says Von. He remembers once when he and his older sister were walking through town with their grandmother. His sister ran ahead and into a bus station where she drank from a whites-only fountain. Their grandmother was furious and scared. Why did she do that? "My sister said, ‘I just wanted to see what white water tasted like.’”
At age 7, he began taking tap classes with his sister and began a lifelong love affair with dance. Eventually he earned a spot performing with the military troop Tops in Blue and claimed his ticket out of the South.
He teaches 10-plus classes weekly, travels widely for fitness events and volunteers helping at-risk kids. But it's his artistic side that defines him. "If it's creative and artistic and there's movement to music and creating a picture, I'm all over it."
Now Von is taking on Broadway, or at least something like it. "I'm trying to grow [Let's Go] to a national tour," he says. "It's a marketable business product."
Step 1 instructor Michelle Coons has worked with Von for about 20 years.
"He's well-known in the rap and hip-hop world," says Coons. "I'm very impressed that they're calling in and want him to take it on the road." Von will do it the right way. "The only way this life works is living through heart. I think that's the answer to our problems," he says.
