Arts Preview: Step Afrika! Honors MLK’s Legacy with Showcase at Strathmore

C. Brian Williams first learned about the tradition of stepping as an undergraduate at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University. The dance style, which typically features a group of people in formation stomping, clapping and moving in unison, developed as a ritual of African-American fraternities and sororities in the 1900s. Williams learned to step when he pledged as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity-Beta Chapter—the same fraternity that counted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a member.

Williams went on to found Step Afrika!, the first professional dance company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. This weekend, Williams will bring his experience full circle when Step Afrika! brings its show “Step Xplosion” to The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. The show, which falls a day before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, is in honor of the civil rights leader.

“The show will celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King by bringing the community together to celebrate, reflect and also to enjoy,” Williams said. “There are so many natural ties to Dr. King. The [step] tradition was created by African-American college students. As an undergraduate, he pledged an African-American fraternity. African-American fraternities and sororities have a rich history and culture through their service and through their involvement with different movements in history. It’s just one different way to honor his desired effect to bring people together and to honor his legacy.”

Williams, a District resident, founded the dance company in 1994. He got the idea for Step Afrika! after he graduated from college and began teaching at a vocational school in Lesotho, Africa. One day, he saw a boy dancing in the street and thought the moves looked remarkably similar to stepping. He asked friends about it and discovered the Gumboot dance, developed by miners in South Africa as an alternative to drumming, which was banned. Step Afrika! blended the percussive foot-stomping and clapping of American stepping with traditional African dances. Performances also incorporate storytelling, singing and audience participation.

“The core of our work has been about cultural exchange of the arts and about bringing people together,” Williams said.

Since Step Afrika! was created, stepping has been introduced to a wider mainstream audience through films such as Stomp the Yard and How She Move. Now it’s commonly practiced not only at historically black universities but at diverse schools and organizations around the country and around the world.

“Twenty-five or 35 years ago, you didn’t see stepping practiced in high schools and elementary schools and churches,” Williams said. “We’ve been working hard to promote it and preserve it as an African-American tradition and as a growing part of the culture.”

In addition to the Step Afrika! performance, the showcase at Strathmore will feature step teams from around the region, including Dem Raider Boyz, KAOSS (Kids Always On The Same Step), Quadrew, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Step Team-Beta Chapter, The Herndon High School Step Team and Crimson Inferno, a team from New York. The showcase in some ways represents both the origins and the future of the step tradition, Williams said.

“The step show is the historical platform for stepping. The step teams would compete for prizes and for bragging rights, if you will, on stage in front of audiences of thousands. We want to bring that aspect to the show at Strathmore,” he said. “All the different teams represent the next generation of stepping. It’s a great introduction to the diversity found in the step community today.”

4 p.m. Jan. 17, The Music Center at Strathmore, $25-$40, www.bethesdabluesandjazz.com