Step Afrika! is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping and they will be stepping into Stillwater Thursday, February 18, 2010, at 8pm at the City of Stillwater Community Center, 315 West 8th Avenue.

Step Afrika! celebrates stepping, an art form born at African-American fraternities and based in African traditions. As the first professional company dedicated to stepping, Step Afrika!’s intricate kicks, stomps and rhythms mixed with spoken word pound the floor and fill the air.

Founded in December 1994, Step Afrika! is critically-acclaimed for its efforts to promote an understanding of and appreciation for stepping and the dance tradition’s use as an educational tool for young people worldwide. Step Afrika! reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year and has performed on many stages in North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

Based in Washington, DC, the company has been featured on CNN, BET, PBS and NPR as well as numerous books, documentaries and articles that seek to explore the tradition of stepping. Step Afrika! serves as a cultural ambassador for the United States, representing the nation at events around the world through special invitations from American embassies. Its signature event, the annual Step Afrika! International Cultural Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the fruit of a ten-year collaboration with the Soweto Dance Theatre that unites artists from around the world in dialogue and dance performance.

Step Afrika! is a model for the use of stepping in educational settings, espousing themes such as teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. Step Afrika! frequently conducts residencies, master classes and in-school performances for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Smithsonian Institution and in schools and community-based organizations around the world.

Step Afrika! is part of the 2009/2010 City of Stillwater Community Center’s Performing Arts Series, which is sponsored by the City of Stillwater, Oklahoma Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Stillwater Radio and Suddenlink.

Tickets are on sale for $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and $12 for students (applies to anyone with a valid high school, college or university ID). To purchase tickets visit http://tickets.stillwater.org or call (405) 533-8433. Tickets will be available at the door as long as they last.