'STEP' Kicks into NYMF 9/30 & 10/6

The New York Musical Theatre Festival, Soul Steps LLC and Eric Louie present STEP.  Performances will take place on Sunday, September 30 at 2PM & 5PM with a recently added performance, due to popular demand, on Saturday, October 6 at 11PM at The 45th Street Theater.

"The clap of the hand. The stomp of the foot. For over a century, step dancers have used their bodies as musical instruments to create a new physical language. STEP brings this explosive art form to the stage in an exciting new musical, where dance, music, and Afro-urban rhythms and rhymes relay the cultural and personal stories of a new generation… and their link to the past," explain press notes.

STEP stars members of Soul Steps:  Aimee Chambers-McKay, Heather DeLeon , Maxine Lyle , Liana Morales, Sean Anthony Thomas, and Zakia Benyard as "The Leader."  Soul Steps artists have an array of experience in step dance and other dance genres. They draw upon styles of urban dance and percussive art, such as tap, hip-hop, and drumming, to create a unique synergy of movement and rhythms that both celebrate the tradition of step dance and explore new avenues of expression through this art. STEP also features Rebecca Arnold, Rory Lipide, Harrison Rivers, Greg Sundel, and Jehan O. Young .

The STEP production team includes lighting designer Michael Inwood, stage manager Jamie Kranz, and production consultants Alicia Dhyana House and Samantha Reed.

Harrison David Rivers' plays have been produced at The Atlantic Theater, Manhattan Theatre Source, Collective:Unconscious, The Playwrights Center of San Francisco, The Riant Theatre, and CAFEARTS.  Amissa Miller has worked in the literary offices of Playwrights Horizons and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and has served as a dramaturg on multiple projects, most recently In Response to An Act of Violence and Prophet's Wife, both written by Rivers. Wayne Lyle has been performing music in and around New York City since 1986 with such artists as Ahmed Best and cast members from Stomp.

Martin Damien Wilkins' work has been seen at GeorgeMasonUniversity and as part of Arena Stage's Student Playwrights' Festival . He was awarded Arena Stage's Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellowship, the Contemporary American Theater Festivals' Marvin Weissberg Directing Fellowship and a Stage Directors & Choreographers Foundation Observership. Maxine Lyle's choreography has been featured at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) and has taught at arts institutions, including the Youth Alive Step Team, the Manhattan College Step team, the Westfield State University Step Team, the Vermont Arts Exchange, Berkshire Pulse, Eden Hill, and Simon's Rock.

 

STEP plays on Sunday, September 30 at 2PM & 5PM and October 6 at 11PM. The 45th Street Theater is located at 354 West 54th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues).

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at www.nymf.org or by calling 212-352-3101. For a more detailed performance schedule and additional information, please visit www.nymf.org and www.soulsteps.com.

Now in its 4th year, The New York Musical Theatre Festival is the largest musical theatre event in America.  NYMF premiered 99 new musicals during its first three seasons, with more than a dozen of these shows transferring to successful off-Broadway and regional productions.  Hailed as "the Sundance of Musical Theatre," NYMF is widely regarded as the premier source for new material and talent discovery.