Step Afrika!, the renowned, internationally touring company, is bringing its stomping, clapping, highly energetic, intricately choreographed performance Jan. 28 to Dominican University in River Forest.
“As a dance form, stepping is extremely powerful to watch,” said Leslie Rodriguez, managing director of Dominican’s Performing Arts Center, who booked the company as part of the university’s world art series. “It’s the opposite of the ethereal quality of ballet. This is extremely physical and athletic and passionate. It’s hard to not get swept into the excitement of it.”
Stepping, as opposed to other forms of dance emphasizing fancy footwork, is an American art form that developed during the early decades of the 20th century, primarily at fraternities and sororities at African-American schools such as Howard University.
“They put on stepping shows to showcase their teamwork and discipline and commitment to their organizations,” said Barrett Kinsella, Step Afrika! marketing manager, noting that the dance style eventually caught on outside of colleges and universities and became increasingly popular. It has even been featured in a handful of recent films such as “Stomp the Yard,” “School Daze,” “Mac and Me,” “Drumline” and “How She Move.”
“Stepping today is drawn from a plethora of sources,” Kinsella added. It’s inspired by African folk dance, Romanian circle dance, African folk dance, elements of military drilling, cheerleading, ballet, tap. It’s really a fusion art form born out of combining a bunch of separate ones.
“Even a hundred years ago, it was drawn from all sorts of different places.”
One of those places was definitely South Africa, where Step Afrika! Executive Director and founder C. Brian Williams had gone in 1994 after becoming involved in stepping at Howard University. One day, Williams observed a boy in the streets performing some gumboot dance moves that seemed extremely familiar. After investigating at the Soweto Street Beat Dance Theatre of Johannesburg, Williams learned that gumboot dancing — a percussive style created by oppressed gold miners who slapped their gumboots while dancing because drums were forbidden — was clearly an influence on stepping. As was South Africa’s traditional Zulu folk dance.
Williams was so excited by his discoveries at Soweto Street Beat that he decided to create Dance Afrika! (now headquartered in Washington, D.C.), as the only professional company devoted entirely to stepping.
Step Afrika! does include long-form performances in its repertoire, but the Dominican University show will be its standard college program, which includes pieces illustrating traditional Zulu dance and South African gumboot dancing and demonstrating the influences of these dance forms on modern stepping. The program also has a brief workshop component, during which volunteers are taught basic moves.
The performance will also make room, toward the end, for a demonstration of the competitive element of stepping that has had so much to do with its increasing popularity.
“One dancer will do something and then another person will build on it, improvising like jazz musicians, using each other’s riffs and trying to take them higher,” Rodriguez said. “It’s fantastic to see.”
Step Afrika!
When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28
Where: Dominican University’s Lund Auditorium, 7900 Division St., River Forest
Tickets: $24-$51
Contact: 708-488-5000; http://events.dom.edu/step-afrika
