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The Washington Post Company Jan 19, 2005 Impeccable timing rests at the center of all of Step Afrika's work. Whether a piece rides on comedic timing or the overlay of danced rhythms, the company melds it into a rhythmic machine.
In a Monday night Kennedy Center Education Department presentation targeted at families, Step Afrika!, under the direction of founder Brian Williams, put the machine into overdrive.
Stepping, a style that originated with African American fraternities and sororities, features percussive beats of the feet and hands. Step Afrika! builds on this tradition, reformulating it for the stage and connecting it with other African American forms.
In "Sebenza (Work)," the company performed the South African gumboot. As in all of Step Afrika's work, choreographer Mbuyiselwa Semela contextualizes the piece through movement, rather than program notes or narration. Gumboot arose from mines -- men beating on their knee-high rubber boots to communicate underground.
In "Sebenza," the other dancers leave behind Lesole Maine, who calls out to them with foot stomps and hand slaps, just as a miner might have done. Maine then turns to the audience, eliciting all to join him. Everyone claps along, pulled in solely through dance.
Step Afrika! communicates through movement so well because it employs dynamics. In the opener, "Ke Nako" by Jason Nious and Williams, hipster dancers begin with soft snaps in slanted spotlights, individuals' phrases come together in a thundering climax, and then the piece ends with a solitary snap.
The company pushed in new directions in Semela's aggressive "Zulu Dance" and Kirsten Ledford's "Can U Dance?," a fusion of modern dance, ballet, hip-hop and stepping.
The program also included "The Pledge Suite/1989," a comedic glimpse into Greek pledge-life, and the power-packed "Shhh!"
Step Afrika! will resume performances Friday through Sunday.
-- Clare Croft
My Research