Even if you’ve never heard of it, you won’t soon forget it once you’ve seen it.
The Kimmel Cultural Campus is presenting this culturally-rich, history-based performance of the unforgettable dance troupe “Step Afrika!,” the first professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. The performance takes place Friday, April 28, at the Miller Theater (formerly the Merriam Theater) at 7 p.m.
The group, founded in 1994 by C. Brian Williams, blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities, traditional West and Southern African dances, and an array of contemporary dance and art forms into a compelling experience.
“Step Afrika!” has earned the Mayor’s Art Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education, Innovation in the Arts, and Excellence in the Artistic Discipline.
According to Williams, his group has performed at the White House for President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, and is featured permanently at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture with the world’s first stepping interactive. The dance troupe has also made its off-Broadway debut in the critically-acclaimed production, “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence.”
Williams, a native of Houston, Texas, and a graduate of Howard University, first learned to step as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at the university.
“I was a marketing major at Howard and had no idea of starting a dance company,” Williams says. “Initially, when I first learned about stepping, I saw it as a largely folkloric, traditional dance you couldn’t learn in a studio.”
Williams adds that after pledging for a fraternity, he became aware of stepping, and even took part in several step shows on college campuses.
“In fact, back in the day, the only way to learn how to step was to go to college and join a fraternity,” Williams explains. “It certainly wasn’t something you could learn on the streets of Baltimore.
“And as I became more comfortable with stepping as an art form, I felt it was something more people should have access to, because, at the time, stepping wasn’t widely recognized, even by the African American community, let alone the broader American community. That’s when I decided to see what I could do with this art form.”
According to Williams, “Spike Lee’s film ‘School Daze’ introduced stepping to the world, if you will, to this art form, and the moment this movie was released, stepping became much more popular in the African community. That film was a sort of ‘coming out’ for the art form.”
Over the years, Williams has performed, lectured and taught in Europe, South and Central Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean and throughout the United States.
Additionally, he is a founder of the historic Step Afrika! International Cultural Festival in Johannesburg.
Looking back over the past 30 years since his desire to bring stepping to the world, he says, “For me, the question was how do I make all this happen? What do I need to do to bring this art form to the world?
“Making money really wasn’t the idea,” Williams continued. “The idea was to step all over the continent of Africa, learn traditional dances, and explore the nexus between stepping and traditional African culture that really motivated me to launch ‘Step Afrika!’”
Today, in the midst of a 40-city tour, Williams says he can’t wait to come back to the East Coast, and eventually return to South Africa.
Source : phillytrib.com