On November 10, the students and staff of
duPont Middle School were entertained and educated when the Step Africka dance company visited their school for a special performance.
The group was in town for a performance during the Beaches Fine Arts Series, and stayed a couple of extra days to perform at Biscayne and Ruth Upson elementary schools and duPont Middle School.
duPont's visit was coordinated by the school's choral director, Karen Appelbaum, and the Beaches Fine Arts Series executive director, Kathy Wallace.
The group put on two performances at the school. The first was open to seventh and eighth-grade students who made the A,B,C honor roll for the first nine-weeks, and sixth-grade students attended the second performance as a reward for their behavior.
The crowd enjoyed an informative lesson on stepping, which is a dance that uses the body as an instrument. Stepping, which has roots in African dance and military marching, combines footsteps, claps and spoken words to produce complex rhythms.
The performance was one in which the audience, including Principal Teresa Mowbray (pictured left), was able to get involved as the dance troupe taught them some traditional steps.
Step Afrika was founded in December 1994 as the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping. The company is critically-acclaimed for its efforts to promote an understanding of and appreciation for stepping and the dance tradition's use as an educational tool for young people worldwide.
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