Andscape Celebrates the Launch of Step Afrika!’s Step Classic

Step Afrika! to launch Step Classic event spotlighting Black colleges, Divine Nine

Dance company to bring teams from across the country to Washington

Written by Cayla Sweazie for Andscape

When C. Brian Williams, a Howard University alum and member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, founded the Black dance company Step Afrika! in 1994, he had no idea what it would become.

Thirty years later, the company, which bills itself as “the world’s leading authority on stepping,” will launch the inaugural Step Classic, a three-day event spotlighting the legacy of historically Black colleges and universities and Black Greek life, on Feb. 14-16, 2025, in Washington. Hosted by actor and entertainer Lala Milan, the Step Classic will feature an array of the country’s best step teams.

Andscape spoke with Williams about the event and Step Afrika!’s impact over the last three decades.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What can we expect from this three-day celebration?

For our 30th anniversary, we wanted to do something gigantic for the traditional stepping [art form] and for the community that loves this uniquely American art form, and we wanted to do it in Washington, D.C., which is the home of Step Afrika! and has been so good to the company as a place to create and share this culture. So the Step Afrika! Step Classic is a three-day weekend in downtown Washington, D.C., that’s going to center the art form of stepping like never before, and we’re bringing teams from across the country and throughout the DMV – the District, Maryland and Virginia – to really highlight how far this art form has gone from its initial roots.

How have you seen Step Afrika! evolve, and what impact has it made in the past 30 years?

It’s been a real joy to watch the company grow, and more importantly, the community that we serve grow with us. Right now we’re in the middle of our annual holiday show, which we first started doing maybe 12, 13 years ago. … It’s been sold out even before we opened up with packed audiences of 650, 700 every night. So that shows to me that the people, which is who we create the work for, really are excited about the work and want to see what Step Afrika! does.

Step Afrika! started off in 1994 in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a community-building event. So I think that has been consistent throughout our 30-year journey – yes, we’re about the artistry and performance, but at the end of the day, we’re about serving the community through exciting events that allow us to come together and mark special occasions and just celebrate.

The event takes place during Black History Month. How integral are HBCUs and the Divine Nine when it comes to stepping?

Washington, D.C., is the home of Howard University, and Howard is the birthplace of five or six of the Divine Nine, that collection of historically African American fraternities and sororities, and so to me, D.C. has always made perfect sense as a home for Step Afrika! … HBCU culture is a huge part of us. It’s in our DNA.

Here in Washington, D.C., we also have the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Step Afrika! is featured prominently in that museum with an exhibit that really raises the art form of stepping with the world’s first interactive exhibit on this tradition. So we’re going to celebrate all of that this February at the Step Classic. … I really feel like there’s no better way to celebrate Black History Month than this particular event.

As an HBCU graduate and member of Alpha Phi Alpha, how important was it for you to create an event that merges all of your passions?

I pledged my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Beta Chapter, 35 years ago, which is crazy, and I gotta say that that experience of pledging a fraternity, being a part of that brotherhood, was such a leadership development opportunity for me. I always tell people that the fraternity allowed me to dream and practice leadership and create service projects for the community from a very safe and supportive place [during] some critical years, my formative years, and I know that’s consistent with fraternity and sorority members across the Divine Nine. You know, that sacred space on campus in a fraternity and a sorority allows you to practice some things that can prepare you for life. … So when I graduated from Howard University and moved to South Africa in 1991, I felt ready to explore and create and out of that experience birth Step Afrika!

When did you realize there was a need for an event like the Step Classic, and what has preparation looked like?

I think if you look at Step Afrika!’s development as a company, we’ve always been responding to what our audiences enjoy, want to see and need, if you will, from us, and we’re always trying to figure out, well, how do we respond? So the Step Afrika! Step Classic came out of, I think, a need to really center the tradition of stepping. … There’s step shows all across the country, but we wanted to go beyond the classic step show experience and make it into a weekend.

The Step Classic will feature a community day on Saturday, Feb. 15, where we’ll bring the community together to explore the traditional stepping in a unique interactive way with some special guests and a special surprise around that. Then we’ll go into the step show on Sunday, Feb. 16, at the Warner Theatre, and what I love about that is, you know, a lot of times step shows are held in auditoriums, spaces that can’t really magnify the tradition the way I think it deserves. But now we’re going to be with this performance, this step experience, in one of the most beautiful theaters in downtown Washington, D.C. … What’s also important is that this is not a competition. This is the demonstration of the diversity and complexity of those who practice the art form of stepping all across the country, so all age groups, different community groups, fraternities and sororities – all are included in this exhibition.

Who can we expect to see perform?

One of the things I’m most excited about is that we’re bringing together all of the Divine Nine to perform a very special work with Step Afrika! That’s important to me, that all of the D9 is represented in this. … We’re still working on some special guests, and I think we’re going to try to break a couple of records, but I’m not sure yet.

As a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, was that when you first recognized your passion for stepping?

I actually learned how to step on the campus of Howard University. … I’m from Houston, Texas. Stepping at that time was not a huge part of African American culture and traditions if you weren’t on a college campus, in particular HBCUs. … Even though both my parents went to HBCUs, it just was not something I was familiar with back in the ’80s. But since then, we’ve seen stepping move into the community in really exciting ways, and so it’s much more accessible to people of all backgrounds.

When I learned how to step, the only way to learn how to step was if you joined a fraternity, sorority. That’s not the case anymore. You can join an elementary school team, a high school step team. You can join a church, school step team. There’s so many places to access the [art] form, and I think we’re going to celebrate that at the Step Afrika! Step Classic, how this [art] form has moved into all parts of American and world culture.