The Roots of Step Afrika!

Founded in 1994 by current Executive Director, C. Brian Williams, Step Afrika began as cross-cultural exchange program with the Soweto Dance Theatre of Johannesburg, South Africa. As a young graduate of Howard University in 1991, Brian traveled to Southern Africa through the late Rev. Leon Sullivan’s International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH). Here, he taught small business skills to students at the Lesotho (pronounced “leh-soo-too) Opportunities Industrialization Center (LOIC) for over nine months.

While in Africa, Brian came across the South African gumboot dance—an art form created by South African mine-workers which greatly resembled the stepping he had learned at college. He later met three members of the Soweto Dance Theatre: Founder Mbuyiselwa “Jackie” Semela, Managing Director Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo, and Lead Dancer Moeketsi Koena. Together, they created the Step Afrika International Cultural Festival--the first known attempt to link the people who practiced stepping in America with those who perform the Gumboot dance.

The first Festival was held in December, 1994, only six months after the election of Nelson Mandela as President of a free and Democratic Republic of South Africa. Subsequent Festival participants have witnessed the tremendous growth of South Africa as it transitions to a non-racial, multi-cultural society.

In 1996, Brian launched Step Afrika’s first program in the USA. Designed to assure that American youth unable to travel to the Festival also benefited from the international exchange, the company offered workshops that highlighted the connections between stepping and the gumboot dance. Our first workshop in South Carolina led to the creation of a performance group that could take stepping to children throughout the USA. That same year, Step Afrika UK was founded by Khadijatou Silcott-Frasier representing cultural traditions from England and the Caribbean.

In 1997, Step Afrika developed its first production on the history of stepping and its connections to art forms around the world. After earning tremendous reviews from the Washington Post and other publications, Step Afrika began touring the country from Alabama to Alaska. The company has grown to become one of Washington, DC’s most widely-recognized arts organizations.

January, 2000 saw the first full production of Step Afrika in a sold-out run at the Kennedy Center as a part of the Imagination Celebration Series. Produced in partnership with the Soweto Dance Theater, the production received great acclaim and feature spots on CNN and BET. The company began to tour that same year with a production of only four performers. This laid the foundation for Step Afrika’s now six-member ensemble that performs regularly around the world.

Step Afrika maintains operations in Washington, DC; Johannesburg, South Africa (the annual site of the Step Afrika Festival) and in London, England (home of Step Afrika! UK).