company STEP AFRIKA! is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping. Founded in December 1994, the company is celebrated worldwide for its efforts to promote an appreciation for stepping and the dance tradition’s use as an educational tool for young people. Step Afrika! reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year and has performed on many stages in North & South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
Based in Washington, DC, Step Afrika! is DC’s first and only Cultural Ambassador representing the city and nation at events around the world. The company completes an annual 50-city tour of colleges and theaters from Maine to Mississippi and is a national model for the use of stepping in education, espousing themes such as teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. Step Afrika! is a frequent partner of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Washington Performing Arts Society and has graced some of America’s most prestigous stages from the White House to the Lincoln Center in New York City.
a perfect rhythmic storm...high-energy movements with feet and hands, adding flair through total body articulation.
-Daily News Egypt
Houston,Texas and graduate of Howard University. Brian first learned to step as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. – Beta Chapter, in 1989. While living in Africa, he began to research stepping, exploring the many sides of this exciting, yet under-recognized, American art form and founded Step Afrika! in 1994. Brian has performed, lectured and taught in Europe, Central & South America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and throughout the United States. He is co-founder of the historic Step Afrika! International Cultural Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa. Brian has been cited as a “Civic/Community Visionary” by NV Magazine and “Nation Builder” by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. He is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship, numerous awards from the DC Commission on Arts & Humanities and is featured in Soulstepping, the first book to document the history of stepping. The Washingtonian Magazine cited Brian as one of “40 Washingtonians under 40” to watch in the years to come. He also received the 2008 Mayor’s Art Award for Innovation in the Arts and led the company to three Metro DC Dance Awards for “Outstanding New Work”, “Excellence in Stage Design/ Multimedia” and “Outstanding Group Performance”. Under Brian’s leadership, stepping has evolved into one of America’s newest cultural exports and inspired the designation of Step Afrika! as “Washington, DC’s official Cultural Ambassador.” Most recently Brian was featured in Washington Life Magazine as one of Washington DC’s “arts innovators”.
JAKARI SHERMAN (Artistic Director) is an intense performer, percussionist
and choreographer, whose stepping experience extends over 15 years. Jakari has served as the Artistic Director of Step Afrika! since 2007 and brought new life to the folkloric tradition of stepping both locally and across the globe. He has coached and choreographed for numerous community organizations, and directed the NBA’s first step team. As a choreographer, Jakari seeks to create a body of work that is experimental and challenging for both the dancer and the audience. Jakari received a Young Artist Grant Award from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 2008, and was a 2009 finalist for Outstanding Emerging Artist by the city’s prestigious Mayor’s Arts Awards. In 2010, Jakari received Metro DC Dance Awards for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and Excellence in Sound/Composition. Sherman studied Management Information Systems at the University of Houston and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
founder & artistic director
C. BRIAN WILLIAMS (Founder & Executive Director) is a native of
Step Afrika! currently has five arts education programs, that include:
Stepping with Step Afrika!: a highly interactive 50-minute in-school performance for K-12 students that highlights the rhythm, physicality and history of stepping and culminates in a group activity to get students on their feet.
Step Up to College: a week-long residency in which two Step Afrika! artists teach a class for one hour
assisted by a classroom teacher. The curriculum is designed to expose students to the art of stepping as well as its history and development through a student activities journal. The week culminates in a visit to a college where students witness stepping on a college campus and see the benefits of higher education.
Forward Steps: an after-school program in which students of grades 3 to 12 enjoy classes on a weekly
basis with Step Afrika! and guest artists during the academic year. Students research and write about stepping; learn about choreography, precision, voice and diction; and are taught about self and group management using the step “team� as a model.
Summer Steps with Step Afrika!: a week-long summer camp sponsored by the Washington Performing
Arts Society (WPAS) that explores the tradition of stepping and its association with other percussive dance styles. Held annually, over 150 youth participate in intensive stepping classes and a culminating community performance.
Step Afrika! Scholars Program As part of its commitment to education, Step Afrika! developed the Step Afrika! Scholars Scholarship Program to help students offset the cost of their college education.
The Step Afrika! dancers are wonderful teachers and instill in young people a sense of discipline, focus, leadership, teamwork and creativity.
-Carol Bogash The Washington Performing Arts Society
arts education
Step Afrika!’s programs teach youth of all cultural and economic backgrounds the history and development of stepping as an exciting contemporary American dance genre and its ties with African dance traditions. The company is committed to enhancing the lives of youth with programs that engage and inspire them to make positive choices. Our teaching artists emphasize the ties between stepping, teamwork, discipline and commitment.
“Electrifying talents” “Founder C. Brian Williams runs a top-notch troupe wonderfully adept at this fraternity-sorority African American tradition, an ensemble of fast, smooth stylists and musicians who take a fun-filled past time and turn it into art. The speed of their hands and feet…comes as no surprise. But the visual design and stage presentation are especially noteworthy.” - Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune
“...the terrific and rousing finale by eight members of Step Afrika!...a jubilation of rhythm and spirit that harks back to the essence of dancing: people moving together in harmony for the greater good.” - Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
“Performing with no musical accompaniment besides their own stomping feet…the members of Step Afrika! gave the evening a commanding, dynamic jolt that was unmatched by anything else on the program.” -Sarah Kaufman, Pulitzer Award Winning Writer
“ A modernized Zulu dance, comprising sustained leg extensions and a deep rolling of the torso, transcended folklore to become fresh and immediate. Other offerings evoked multi-faceted self-expression through the bodily instrument: hands clapping, feet pounding, spoken word, together with playful on-upmanship and uncontrived audience involvement.” - Lucia Mauro, Chicago Tribune
“The mesmerizing display of physical movement and eloquent music left the audi-
ence amazed at the troupe’s power, strength, humor, and grace.” - Franz A. Matzner, All About Jazz
press quotes
-The Washington Post
PRESS DANCE REVIEW Step Afrika! goes far with freshness,energy
By Rebecca J. Ritzel Special to The Washington Post Friday, June 18, 2010; C02
South Africa may have lost at home in World Cup action on Wednesday, but Step Afrika! won big -- very big -- at home in Washington. The local dance troupe opened its annual home series with a high-decibel night of dancing at the Lansburgh Theatre. For 15 years, Step Afrika!, which performs every year in Johannesburg, has built its reputation as an ambassador for stepping, a percussive dance tradition that has long been popular at historically black colleges. As dancer Makeda Abraham told the packed house, the troupe now spends its 10-month season on the road, performing in schools and, thanks to some State Department funding, touring overseas. The atmosphere at these spring shows is like a ticker-tape parade, with an enthusiastic crowd cheering on the dancers by name. It's fun, but it can also feel like a random night of greatest hits. Not this year. The program lists just five dance numbers, but the highlights may have been the segues. The show opened with an electric violinist serenading the crowd while a slideshow of the troupe's recent travels flashed behind him. Local turntablist DJ RBI soon followed, and finally, the dancers. The opening number, "Xtown Chicago," was a premiere re-creating a Windy City streetscape. Each dancer who crosses the stage steps to a different rhythm: a businesswoman in clacking heels, a street preacher, a jogger, a frustrated Bulls fan. Put them all onstage together and it's not an urban cacophony but a step symphony. Artistic Director Jakari Sherman can create works like this because he attracts young performers who do more than just step. Recent recruits include virtuosic tapper Ryan Johnson and Suitland High School grad Michael Alford II, who apparently went off to the Ailey School and came home able to transition from a Zulu high-leg kick to an arabesque penchĂŠe, balancing on the ball of his left foot while his right leg extends straight up into the air. Ballet moves by Step Afrika!? Oh, yes.
PRESS
As featured in the February 2009 issue of “Dance Magazine”
PRESS Stepping Into the Realm Of Art Step Afrika! Program Ranges From Muscular To Quietly Intense By Sarah Kaufman washingtonpost.com November 16, 2006 A little goes a long way with percussive dance. Whether it's tap, Irish step dancing or other forms of musical footwork, choreography generally takes a back seat to rhythm, the body is less involved than the shoes, and the sound can become overwhelming. Yet in an engaging, richly textured program last weekend at Dance Place, Step Afrika! demonstrated that the stomping, body-slapping art of stepping has boundless expressive possibilities. Step Afrika!'s work stems from both traditional African dance and its distant cousin stepping, a competitive dance practiced on college campuses among black fraternities and sororities. The group was founded in 1994 by Brian Williams, a Howard University graduate and Alpha Phi Alpha stepper who was struck by the similarities between stepping and what he saw on his travels through Africa. Generally, his troupe performs stepping and African dance side by side, or mixes the two forms. For this program, however, he wanted to bring both dance forms into the 21st century, which is how "Nxt/step" came to be. In "Nxt/step" the performers were both onstage and onscreen, as the dancers responded to video images of themselves. In creating this clever work, choreographer Jakari Sherman picked up pointers from the New York-based Bridgman/Packer Dance, which has also performed its brand of interactive video dance here. It was a good match for Step Afrika!, whose members are aces at syncopation. This was critical when, for instance, the onscreen dancers, projected on the backstage wall, laid down one beat, and the live dancers interwove their own. At one point, the video imagery that joined the live dancing showed some of the live dancers, creating a complex web of images and rhythms. Pulling off this challenging work required stamina -- stepping is extraordinarily taxing for a few minutes, let alone 20 -- and coordination, and there were a few glitches Saturday night. But these aspects aside, the tricks of the camera and the way the dancers reacted were great fun to watch. "Nxt/step" was the closer in an evening that showed the blistering power of percussive dance as well as its softer, more introspective sides. The group's desire to see stepping taken seriously was reflected in "Can You Dance?," in which one of the dancers displayed his smooth, slithery abilities while a recorded voice-over asserted that steppers are not just "Greeks from school days" but legitimate artists. The narration ended with a taunting shot at the audience: "Can you step ?" Ooh. Take that, skeptics. Except that it seemed strange to kick the show off with such a defensive posture -- presumably, the ticket holders who sold out the performance had already accepted the troupe as an artistic enterprise. The weekend's performances were sponsored by DancePlace and the Washington Performing Arts Society.
Stepping Into the Realm Of Art Step Afrika! Program Ranges From Muscular To Quietly Intense cont’d The works that followed "Can you Dance?" demonstrated the power and undeniable cool of stepping, as well as its relation to African dance. "Ndlamo," inspired by Zulu traditions, was a tidal wave of fierce muscular energy, as one dancer after another pounded and thrashed to the thunder of three drummers. Bits of character study and comedy were skillfully woven into "Sebenza," drawn from the dancing of South African miners, who make percussive use of their tall rubber work boots. "The Deacon's Dance" and "Wade," first seen in September at Dance Place's season-opening program, turned stepping into an aching expression of spiritual anguish and redemption, accompanied by low, purring gospel singing onstage. More than any of the others, these two works took stepping into rarefied territory, where dance is not just physically or rhythmically impressive -- it feels essential. Stepping's awesome coordination, aerobic energy and noise were all stripped away, and what remained was quiet white-hot fire.
for US Performing Arts Presenters, Performing Arts Series (at Colleges & Universities) and Arts Councils: Nancy Christensen MCM Arts P.O. 825 Highland, NY 12528 Phone: 845-691-4960 www.mcmarts.org for NACA Members & all Student Organizations (at Colleges & Universities): Greg Polvere Global Talent HQ, LLC 42 Delavan Street Brooklyn, NY 11231 Phone: 347-385-6879 www.GTHQ.org for General Inquiries and International Booking: bookings@stepafrika.org
...always visually and musically exciting!
-The Washington Post
booking information
Step Afrika!’s team of agents are tailored to the needs of a wide range of organizations that present us each year. From one-time shows to week-long residencies, they are ready to answer questions and shape schedules that are appropriate for the needs of your community.