The 5th Step Afrika! International Dance Festival hosted by the Soweto Dance Theatre takes place in White City, Soweto

December of 1998, C. Brian Williams led a fifth delegation to Step Afrika!’s International Cultural Festival in Johannesburg. Kristen Ledford joined the Administrative Team as the first Artistic Director and Step Afrika! welcomed women into the Company for the first time.

5th Annual Step Afrika! International Dance Festival

Stepping Out

Printed in the Vulka, 1998

“Soweto Dance Theatre steps out this summer when it hosts the Step Atrika! 1998 International Dance Festival which returns to South Africa in December for its 5th year.

THE FESTIVAL which has emerged as an important platform for cultural exchange and development, invites participants from all over the world to come and experience a wide range of South African dance and cultural traditions while also gaining exposure to international dance forms. Inaugurated in 1994 as a collaboration between Soweto Dance Theatre and Alpha Phi Alpha to examine the cultural links between South African and American communities, Step Afrika! has grown to include artists from the UK, the Caribbean, and the Netherlands.

This year’s festival will run from 7 – 19 December at the Ipelegeng Centre in White City, Soweto.

Soweto Dance Theatre has put together an exciting programme of events, the focus of which will be a two-week Workshop Programme headed by a contingency of top local and international artists and traditional exponents.

Workshops offered will include Gumboot, Pantsula, Hip-hop, Caribbean, Swazi, Pedi, Venda, Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa, Tsonga, Tswana, Ndebele. Also on offer will be UK Jungle (a mix of contemporary African street, jazz and physical theatre), and Stepping, a dance form which originated from the African-American college fraternity dating back to 1906. A combination of percussive body movements, singing, chanting and verbal play, Stepping has been likened to South African gumboot dancing.

Workshops will culminate in a final presentation on 19 December when Step Afrika! 1998 takes to the streets of Soweto with a colourful and vibrant carnival procession. Registration fees for the Workshop Programme are R20.00 per person. Groups consisting of 10 or more individuals (not more than 30) will be charged a net fee of R100.00.”

VIEW THE FULL 1998 ARTICLE HERE