Step Afrika dances in Belize

In other news, an international dance company is threatening to rock the country with its unique form of dance. Step Afrika is in the Jewel, courtesy of the US Embassy and NICH, as part of a three country tour of Central America. The group will be holding free concerts so get ready to step, stomp and clap. News Five’s Delahnie Bain reports.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

Step Afrika is the first professional company in the world dedicated to traditional step dancing. It’s a highly talented group of performers who have rocked stages all over the United States and now they’re bringing their moves to Belize, the first on their Central American Tour.

Brian Williams, Founder, Step Afrika

brian williams

“You have very unique and distinct cultures here, we’ve learned that the Mayan culture here, the Garifuna culture is here, plus have a contemporary culture as well. Step Afrika wants to learn about that. We wanna learn about Belizean culture; you’re close to the United States, we should know more about our neighbours, people to people.”

jakari sherman

Jakari Sherman, Artistic Director, Step Afrika

“The primary dance that we do is stepping, which is a dance that was created by African American College Students. It’s a percussion dance form. So we’ll be clapping, and stepping and stomping and all of the above. And then we also do traditional dances from South Africa. And then from there we have a whole range of other dance forms that we exhibit. So you’ll see a little bit of hip hop dance, you’ll see a little bit of modern dance, some tap dance, a bit of drumming and just really, really a whole lot of energy.”

The group first takes the stage at the Bliss, but if you can’t make it to the city, Step Afrika has a packed agenda for performances in other districts.

kelly mccarthey

Kelly McCarthy, Public Affairs Officer, US Embassy

“Tomorrow night they will be performing at the Bliss Center For Performing Arts. The performance starts at seven. It’s free and open to the public. On Friday at ten a.m. at the Bliss they’ll be performing a show for youth and adults; anyone who wants to come is welcome. On Saturday we’ll head down to Dangriga. The performances will start at six. They’ll have six Belizean Garifuna and Mayan Dance Groups performing and then at eight o’clock Step Afrika will take the stage. After Saturday, we’ll head up the road, come up the Hummingbird Highway and head over to Belmopan and in Belmopan they’ll be performing at the University of Belize in their gymnasium and that performance starts at four.”

Brian Williams

“What we’re doing is something different with stepping. We teach it differently and we merge it with different art forms and now we’re gonna merge it with some Mayan tradition and some Garifuna so we’ll see what happens when we meet.”

Since step dancing is not common in Belize, you might be wondering what to expect at the show. Let’s just say you won’t need any chairs.

Jakari Sherman

“You can expect excitement in one word. You can expect energy, enthusiasm and also you can expect to learn something about our culture.”

Brian Williams

“Bring your young people who want to scream, if they wanna dance, they wanna move. They’ll be a part of our show. We’ll invite people on stage to dance with us and learn how to step with us, we’ll be asking you to yell, make noise, have fun throughout and we’ll also show you some really, really, talented dancers.”

After Belize, Step Afrika heads to Panama and then moves on to Honduras. Delahnie Bain for News Five.

Step Afrika has a total of eleven members; seven are performing on the tour. You can also catch them on Thursday morning on Open Your Eyes.