Tuesday, August 25, 2009
PRINCESS ANNE, MD-The stage of the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts will pulsate with the high energy, floor pounding performance of Washington, D.C.’s Step Afrika, the first professional stepping dance company in the world, on Thursday, September 3, at 6:30 p.m. The group combines kicks, stomps and rhythms with spoken word to entertain.
Part of an annual tour of over 150 events throughout 50 U.S. cities and foreign countries, Step Afrika brings to the stage educational issues and cultural awareness along with entertainment. Themes explored are teamwork, discipline, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. As part of their repertoire, they present the history of stepping and its impact on modern dance and point out the similarities in cultures and dance from Appalachia’s clogging to South Africa’s gumboot and Zulu. Step Afrika’s motto is: “if we can dance together, then we can work together.”
“With the financial support of various campus divisions, the university is proud to be able to bring such a culturally rich program of this caliber to the Eastern Shore,” said Marvin Jones, director, Office of Residence Life, UMES. “Step Afrika is a well-established organization that has performed at many college campuses across the nation and at venues such as the White House and the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C. They ve been featured on CNN, BET, PBS and NPR. We hope the community will take advantage of this unique opportunity.”
Tickets for Step Afrika’s show at UMES are $6 for the general public and $3 for UMES students. For more information, call 410-651-8306.
###
Gail Stephens, assistant director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580, gcstephens@umes.edu.
Suzanne Waters Street, director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-621-2355, sstreet@umes.edu.
