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  • 2026 February: Step Afrika! Residency

Step Afrika! residency inspires reflection and celebration: “We are here to step!”

Dr. Ida Balderrama-Trudell

A group of high school students learn dance moves in a bright dance studio with a wood floor.
Published February 16, 2026

The first week of February, Overture Center hosted the cast of award-winning African American dance company Step Afrika! for a short residency, featuring multiple community events centered around their current work, “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence.” Inspired by painter Jacob Lawrence’s iconic 60-panel “The Migration Series,” this signature work tells the story of one of the largest movements of people in United States history, when millions of African Americans moved from the rural South to the industrial North in the 1900s in search of a better life. Step Afrika! uses the images, color palette and motifs in the painting series to tell this astonishing story through pulsating rhythms and visually stunning movement. 

The residency started on Monday, Feb. 2 with a recorded conversation with local community partners, cast members and show creatives hosted by Overture Center’s Community Advisory Council (CAC) in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Department. CAC Chair Anna Gonzalez and Vice Chair Andrea Bonaparte welcomed and hosted the event. The panel was moderated by Overture Center’s Artist and Community Engagement Program Manager Allison Ward. Panelists included: 

  • Omari Carter, UW-Madison Assistant Professor 

  • Karla Foster, Director of Student and Recent Grad Engagement at Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association

  • Mfon Akpan, Step Afrika! Artistic Director

  • Jakari Sherman, Step Afrika! Director

  • Ariel Dykes, Step Afrika! Cast Member

  • Pelham Warner, Step Afrika! Cast Member 

Together, panelists explored the performance’s themes and examined how percussive dance, African traditions and contemporary movement shape storytelling and deepen artistic expression. The Step Afrika! team shared how they incorporated the work of Jacob Lawrence’s “The Migration” into their step and dance choreography.  

“Being able to join in community to look at how this national movement is also part of our local story was such a meaningful conversation,” said Allison Ward. “It's beautiful when we can share these stories in an intimate space and then all come together in the storytelling later on our stage.”

It was memorable to learn a style that is intertwined with my culture and family history.

- Step Afrika! Workshop participant

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, cast members traveled to UW-Madison for Professor Carter’s body percussion class. They began with high energy warmups, led by Ariel Dykes and Nya Christian, who are members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Many members of the Step Afrika! company are members of Divine Nine fraternities and sororities.  

Divine Nine organizations were founded at Howard University under the National Pan-Hellenic Council and consist of nine historically African American fraternities and sororities. Keanu Powell, a member of an Omega Psi Epsilon Fraternity, Inc., taught the students body percussive tones and rhythms using different types of claps to get various tones.  

Robert Warnsley, a Chicago native who is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., shared various hand movements—hands flat, hands cupped—to name a few. He uses his experience with his fraternity as their “step and stroll master” to teach and engage with this work. Within 15 minutes, using basic steps, students were already moving as a cohesive dance group, being called to “attention” and chanting, “we came here to step.” 

At the end of the 90-minute workshop, they had learned a full routine. Students attended the performance in Overture Hall the next evening, and they left excited about how they could incorporate ideas into their class the next day. 

One student shared that the workshop influenced the way they think about how they can use their whole body to create rhythms in different ways, noting, “It was memorable to learn a style that is intertwined with my culture and family history.” 

A group of Step Afrika! dancers sit on a stage and talk to audience members with vibrant African art as a backdrop.

After the Wednesday, Feb. 4 performance, audience members were treated to a Q&A with Jakari, Mfon and company members Terrence Johnson, Jemeema Montrose, Pelham Warner and Brittny Smith. Nearly 200 audience members stayed, asking insightful questions—many of them coming from the youngest audience members.  

The first question related to how they created the show. Jakari talked about the relationship between how Lawrence painted one color at a time, layering them on each other to create each panel—and how Step Afrika! also layered their works over the years with a purpose-driven approach, with much choreography created over a long period of time and rooted in their “Drumfolk” show. Previous pieces were reimagined as that show is about the journey of body percussion and stepping and how we arrived at putting music into our bodies. It was rooted in the history of the Stoner Rebellion and the subsequent Negro Act of 1740 that criminalized the drum amongst other things like spiritual practice, music and movement.  

A child asked: “Why did they migrate north?” The answer, simply put, was “They took the drums away. This is a collective ride; everyone has a migration story. We want the show to evoke conversation.” 

Another audience member shared, “It was beautiful how you captured the generation that experienced [the migration]—the costumes, choreography, the full design. Thank you.” 

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