DETROIT — From African American fraternities and sororities to stages worldwide, a leading step dance company debuts at the Detroit Opera House this weekend. Step Afrika! comes to Detroit for a one-night performance Saturday, featuring a program showcasing its signature stepping as well as dances from South Africa.

“It’s a celebration of the art form,” said Step Afrika! Founder C. Brian Williams. “It’s a celebration of African American culture and community, and just American traditions, because stepping is definitely, uniquely American.”

Stepping is a polyrhythmic percussive dance style formed in the mid-20th century within Black fraternities and sororities, where dancers use their bodies like a drum.

“If you think about all of the different beats and tones that you’d hear from a drum kit, that’s basically what we’re doing with our bodies,” said Step Afrika! Artistic Director Mfoniso Akpan. “You’ll hear the lower tones, you’ll hear the higher tones; we are turning the stage and that theater into a live percussive drum. You’re really going to feel the power and the energy of the artists as they are doing the show.”

In addition to stepping, the Detroit Opera House program will feature gumboot and Zulu dances from South Africa. Gumboot is a dance style that originated with South African miners, who would tap out rhythms while wearing rubber boots as a form of communication and entertainment. Like stepping, gumboot is a rhythmic dance where dancers’ bodies become the percussion.

“The different workers, language-wise, they came from different parts of Africa, and sometimes they did not speak the same language,” Akpan said. “Through almost like a Morse code system on the boots, they were able to tap out different messages in the mines, that actually transformed into more of a dance later. It started gaining popularity, they would do mini performances on their breaks, and then it became into something that was more of a popularized dance form.”

Zulu dance dates back hundreds of years and — unlike stepping and gumboot — dancers perform to outside drums. Step Afrika! will perform a Zulu war dance while wearing traditional Zulu costumes. Williams said it’s one of his favorite dance styles in the world.

“The energy and strength of the dancers is quite evident from the beginning,” he said. “It’s explosive, and it’s athletic, and it features one of the most popular movements out of Zulu dance … the ‘Zulu kick.’ If you’ve never seen a Zulu kick in person, you need to see it to understand it.”

The South African dances have been a fundamental part of Step Afrika! since the company originated from an international cultural festival in Johannesburg in 1994 while Williams was living in South Africa.

“I saw (the gumboot) dance, and it reminded me a lot of my fraternity brothers making music with our bodies and stepping,” Williams said. “The idea for me with Step Afrika! was to bring those two art forms together.”

The company has been making regular trips to South Africa to study their dance forms ever since, and Williams said Step Afrika!’s performance is as authentic as you can get outside of South Africa.

While the Detroit program will focus on stepping, gumboot and Zulu dancing, Akpan said the company performs a variety of dance styles based on the talents and experience of individual dancers, who have training in tap, jazz, ballet and West African dance, as well as gymnastics, musical theater and playing musical instruments.

“We pull from what we study and what people have studied themselves,” she said. “We really make it into the best show that we can, giving dancers their moment to shine with what it is that they know best.”

But stepping is the heart of the company, which Williams said is an art form they aim to both preserve and advance.

“If you love [stepping], you should see (our performance), because you’re going to see it at a new level,” he said. “But if you’ve never seen the art form of stepping, this is the best place to get your introduction.”

Step Afrika!

Saturday, Nov. 14

Detroit Opera House

1526 Broadway St., Detroit

Tickets: $56.65 and up

www.detroitopera.org.

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