Victoria Starbuck
       Staff Writer

“When I say okay, you say alright. And when I say alright, you say okay,” announced one of the “Step Afrika” company members during their performance Saturday evening. “Okay?”

“Alright!” The audience responded.

This call and response segment of “Step Afrika’s” performance at Aycock Auditorium on Saturday evening introduced the audience to an important aspect of stepping: audience involvement.

Stepping is an art form that encompasses the initial performers, their audience, music, and dance. Stepping is about community, which was reflected in the atmosphere of the auditorium on Saturday night.

After the initial call and response segment, members of “Step Afrika” invited audience members to participate in the performance through clapping, shouting, moving or any other form of expression they chose.

As the first professional dance company to commit itself to the performance of stepping, “Step Afrika” strives to educate its audience about the methods and history of stepping through demonstration and explanation.

Originating in historically black sororities and fraternities throughout the United States during the mid-1900s, stepping allowed African Americans to create a space for themselves on college campuses by drawing from African American song and dance rituals.

The first showcase of stepping on Saturday demonstrated the manner of stepping as it originated in sororities and fraternities. The rigid movements of the dancers paired with their direct vocal addresses and challenges, reflected the struggle that African Americans faced on college campuses at the time when stepping emerged.

“Stepping is two things: percussive and polyrhythmic,” explained the dancers. The art of stepping involves dynamic movements and sounds that are layered on top of each other. As one dancer initiates a pattern of accents and action, another joins in with a different pattern, and at some point the audience becomes involved in the mix.

The artists of “Step Afrika” moved as both dancers and musicians. The joyous energy of “Step Afrika” reverberated throughout the auditorium with shouts of awe and swaying bodies. Steps on stage were echoed with claps and laughter in the audience.

At one point dancers of Step Afrika pulled audience members onto the stage to learn a step dance. After practicing with members of “Step Afrika” for a couple of rounds, the professional dancers parted the stage to allow the audience members to share their new talents with their peers.

Two of the new steppers were escorted backstage, later to emerge as Zulu chiefs, while the professional members of “Step Afrika” played the drums and recreated Zulu dances in step form.

Later in the evening, “Step Afrika” presented a gumboot dance, which originated in the mines of South Africa around the same time that stepping emerged in the United States. The steps in the gumboot dance are meant to mimic the sounds of the mine workers’ boots, to produce specific sounds as a form of communication.

After the gumboot dance, “Step Afrika” company members provided the audience with examples of present day stepping. While their limbs twisted and grooved into fluid yet precise shapes, their feet and hands created an infectious beat that inspired the audience to join in the performance.

Today, stepping incorporates a variety of dance styles from throughout the world. As stepping moved from college campuses into the surrounding media, churches and communities, it evolved to reflect the diversity of its dancers. Today, stepping is a diverse art form that challenges and inspires its performers to strive towards a more unified and broader community.   

College students who attended the performance on Saturday are eligible for the Step Afrika Scholars Program, which awards up to ten $500 scholarships each year. Steppers at UNCG who are graduating this spring are encouraged to attend the “Step Afrika” company auditions in Washington, D.C., on May 21.