Review: Step Afrika! Community Day

Step Afrika! Sets Guinness World Record for Largest Stepping Dance

Written by Micha Green for The Washington Informer on February 17, 2025

For more than 30 years, Step Afrika! has worked to uplift the legacy and tradition of the African American art of stepping, and on Feb. 15, with 268 steppers at the National Building Museum in Northwest, D.C., the celebrated company furthered this mission by setting a Guinness World Record.

“The event was historic,” said Janice Ferebee, one of the many people who joined Step Afrika! to participate in the groundbreaking moment. “The atmosphere was electrifying, fun, and powerful. It was wonderful to see the multicultural gathering— although predominantly African American— come together to make history.”

Janice Ferebee, a proud 45-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., is dedicated to staying active through various fitness activities. At 69, she said was likely one of the oldest participants in Step Afrika’s! Guinness World Record breaking step at the National Building Museum on Feb. 15. (Courtesy Photo/Janice Ferebee)
Ferebee has been a longtime supporter of Step Afrika! and the company’s founder C. Brian Williams, having traveled with the group to South Africa in 2004 for the International Cultural Festival’s 10th anniversary, with her Got it Goin’ On Girls Hip Hop Fitness Team. She told The Informer it was “a no-brainer” to join the step challenge for Step Afrika!’s Community Day in D.C.

“The step dancers included step teams of young people from different parts of the country in town for the Step Classic on Sunday, Feb. 16, along with adults like me, church ministry and Divine Nine steppers, parents with their younger children (some performing together, others just in attendance for support), and miscellaneous others,” said Ferebee, who is not only a dance-fitness aficionado but a proud 45-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

For Ferebee, who is also involved in 40+ Double Dutch activities, participating in Saturday’s challenge was not just a way to continue supporting Step Afrika!, but to further her mission of staying active.

“As a 69-year-old fit and fabulous, two-time fallopian tube cancer survivor, blessed with over three decades in long-term recovery, I’m dedicated to aging with grace, lust for life, and style, and to challenge my body and mind whenever I can. This was the perfect opportunity,” Ferebee told The Informer, noting she was likely the oldest stepper on the floor. “Learning the step routines was a challenge that I almost didn’t take. Once I received the tutorial though, I was able to learn the routines and felt confident I could pull it off.”

The participants were divided into three groups to review the routine with Step Afrika! company members, who led the charge in practice. Then it was time to combine forces with all 268 people to break the record of more than 250 steppers at once. An official Guinness World Records adjudicator was present to count all the participants and ensure they were in sync.

With Black History Month in full swing, Step Afrika!’s Community Day was not only a moment to set a record, but to continue spreading the historic and cultural significance of stepping.

Williams told The Informer, he started Step Afrika! in 1994 with “a strong belief in African American history and culture and trying to bring that forward in new and exciting ways,” as the company celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2024,

“The motivation was to really preserve and promote stepping as a uniquely American art form,” he explained. “And, now we’ve preserved and documented [stepping], which is important because we had to do it ourselves. And then the rest of the world kind of caught up.”

With the Guinness World Record set on Saturday for the “largest stepping dance,” Williams and Step Afrika! are continuing barrier-breaking work that not only offers joy and entertainment, but brings people together in the name of art.

“Although Step Afrika! and this event are exceptional representations of Black brilliance, Black excellence and Black pride, this internationally renowned performance group transcends Blackness and embraces humanity. This event is one way of promoting cross-cultural connection and unity, which is needed in today’s political and social climate,” Ferebee said. “Stepping, much like music, becomes a universal language.”