Southeast Missouri State University junior Jerry Buck and Southeast alumna Courtney Jordan, traveled with their step team the Step-Up Leadership Academy on Aug. 27 to perform at the UniverSoul Circus pre-show in St. Louis.

Jordan said to keep the performance exciting, they thought it would be cool to have tricks that would hype up the audience.

“We wanted to make sure that we had a trick, at least one — something that would get the crowd’s attention,” Jordan said.

Jordan said one of the tricks they did was a cheer trick where two guys criss-cross their arms and a girl jumps on top of them. Then they propel her into the air and she does a trick where she clicks her legs out.

The step team also made sure to incorporate their leadership step, which is a step that focuses around the principles of the program and things they do in unity, into their routine.

Buck, who served as the team’s coach said even though they were nervous they still managed to put on a good show.

“They were last before the show started and that hyped them up,” Buck said. “That was the best I’ve ever seen them perform,”

A preliminary step contest in New Madrid, Missouri is what led the steppers to the UniverSoul Circus.

Buck said it was a step show where they among other step teams, were judged, and whoever the judges liked best would be sent to perform at the circus.

According to Jordan, individuals from Charleston, Missouri that held the step show were the ones who paid for the tickets, and Lincoln University was responsible for chartering the bus.

Jordan didn’t officially gain leadership with the step team until around February. She said it was important for to be part of the step team because of her love for teaching and wanting to give back to kids.

“I really want to work with kids outside of school, and that was one of the ways that I knew I could do it,” Jordan said.

Jordan has a goal of someday starting her own after-school program.

In the practices for the circus, Buck said the team even worked with a Southeast sorority. The Tau Omicron chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. helped them with their steps in the practices. In the past, the Step-Up Leadership Academy performed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner and at the Out of the Darkness suicide prevention walk.