{"id":26568,"date":"2020-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/step-afrika-makes-jan-28-appearance-at-tarleton\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:42:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T14:42:37","slug":"step-afrika-makes-jan-28-appearance-at-tarleton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/step-afrika-makes-jan-28-appearance-at-tarleton\/","title":{"rendered":"Step Afrika! makes Jan. 28 appearance at Tarleton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n<p>Friday, January 17, 2020<\/p>\n<p>STEPHENVILLE, Texas &mdash;&nbsp;Renowned dance company Step Afrika! will perform at 7 p.m.&nbsp;&nbsp;Tuesday, Jan. 28, in the auditorium of the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center in Stephenville.<\/p>\n<p>Admission is free and area schools are invited to bring groups to the performance.<\/p>\n<p>Step Afrika! was founded in 1994 as the first professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. It now ranks as one of the top ten African-American dance companies in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The company blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African-American fraternities and sororities,&nbsp;African traditional dance&nbsp;and influences from a variety of other dance and art forms.<\/p>\n<p>Performances integrate songs, storytelling, humor and audience participation.<\/p>\n<p>Step Afrika! promotes stepping as an educational tool for young people, focusing on teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. It reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year through a 50-city tour of colleges and theaters and performs globally as a cultural ambassador.<\/p>\n<p>The company holds workshops, residency programs and a variety of arts education activities for K-12 and college students in its home of Washington, D.C., and in cities around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Step Afrika! performed at the White House for President Barack Obama, headlining the Presidential Black History Month reception in 2016, and is featured prominently at the Smithsonian&rsquo;s National Museum of African-American History &amp; Culture with the world&rsquo;s first stepping interactive.<\/p>\n<p>For more information contact Tarleton&rsquo;s Lance Zimmerman Department of Student Involvement, Tradition and Family Relations at (254) 968-9490.<\/p>\n<p>Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&amp;M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today&rsquo;s scholars into tomorrow&rsquo;s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.<\/p>\n<p>Contact: Phil Riddle<br \/>817-484-4415<br \/>priddle<a href=\"mailto:priddle@tarleton.edu\">@tarleton.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, January 17, 2020 STEPHENVILLE, Texas &mdash;&nbsp;Renowned dance company Step Afrika! will perform at 7 p.m.&nbsp;&nbsp;Tuesday, Jan. 28, in the auditorium of the Clyde H. Wells Fine &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-events","category-campus-community"],"acf":{"image":null},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-517-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/category\/arts-events\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Arts &amp; Events<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/category\/campus-community\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Campus &amp; Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Arts &amp; Events<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Campus &amp; Community<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 17, 2020","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 17, 2020 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025 9:42 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Performers in traditional attire dance and play drums on stage.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54201,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26568\/revisions\/54201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}