STEP AFRIKA! Comes to Lincoln Next Month

After thrilling Lied Center audiences in 2021, Step Afrika! will return with lightning-fast footwork, percussive chants, and incredible synchronicity, creating a heart-pounding experience and celebrating the African American tradition of stepping. Based on Jacob Lawrence’s iconic paintings The Migration Series that chart the story of African American migrants moving from the south to the north in the early 1900s, Step Afrika’s powerful new work uses the images and motifs of visual art to tell the migration story through body percussion and dance.

Step Afrika! will perform The Migration at the Lied Center on October 3 at 7:30pm. Tickets are available now at liedcenter.org, (402) 472-4747, and at the Lied Center box office.

Additional Educational Events

Sheldon In Focus: Jacob Lawrence 

Exhibition on view at Sheldon Museum of Art August 15-December 31, 2024

Jacob Lawrence was an artist interested in portraying the lives and struggles of African Americans. Trained by a vibrant arts community during the Harlem Renaissance, Lawrence employed a modernist visual style influenced by African art that combined bright colors, angular figures, and a tight narrative structure to illustrate the histories and heroes of Black culture. For Sheldon In Focus, the museum draws from its collection two significant works by Jacob Lawrence—the painting Paper Boats (1948), and his eight-print series Eight Studies for The Book of Genesis (1990). 

Public gallery talk in the Sheldon In Focus: Jacob Lawrence exhibition galleries at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 3, led by Sheldon Museum of Art Associate Curator for Exhibitions Christian Wurst, who organized the Jacob Lawrence exhibition.

Additional events to be announced include a lecture at the Sheldon Museum of Art from an expert on Lawrence's work and a curated evening of film hosted by the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.

About Step Afrika!

Founded in 1994 by C. Brian Williams, Step Afrika! is the first professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. Under Mr. Williams’ leadership, stepping has evolved into one of America’s cultural exports, touring more than 60 countries across the globe and ranking as one of the top 10 African American Dance Companies in the US.

Step Afrika! blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities; traditional African dances; and an array of contemporary dance and art forms into a cohesive, compelling artistic experience. Performances are much more than dance shows; they integrate songs, storytelling, humor and audience participation. The blend of technique, agility, and pure energy makes each performance unique and leaves the audience with their hearts pounding.

Step Afrika! promotes stepping as an educational tool for young people, focusing on teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. The Company reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year through a 50-city tour of colleges and theaters and performs globally as Washington, DC’s one and only Cultural Ambassador.

Step Afrika! has earned Mayor’s Arts Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education, Innovation in the Arts, Excellence in an Artistic Discipline, and was inducted into the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) Hall of Fame, the first Dance Company to earn this honor. Step Afrika! headlined President Barack Obama’s Black History Month Reception and performed at the first ever Juneteenth Celebration at the White House. The Company is featured prominently at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture with the world’s first stepping interactive exhibit.

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