DC Theater Arts reviewer Sherrita Wilkins gave us the definitive description of Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show when she dubbed it a “joy coma.” “The audience is the show’s heartbeat,” she wrote, “and we’re alive in the performance.” That statement is still true.
Under Mfoniso Akpan’s steady direction, the show is characterized by a brazen and masterful athleticism, lavish spectacle, and relentless rhythm. The costumes sparkled and glittered. The performers’ hair was sharply cut and/or braided in hypnotically geometric maps that led to who-knows-where. The drumsticks emitted a methane blue light as they pummeled the instruments. The over-stimulated audience, adults and children alike, simmered with excitement, shaking the maracas and noisemakers they picked up at the theater entrance. And everyone, not just the Step Afrika! company members, danced.
All of our favorite holiday step show participants were there: DJ Nutcracker (Jeeda Barrington), Popper the dancing penguin, Polo the polar bear, and the inimitably sassy Ryder the Reindeer. The dancers threw themselves into splits and twisted their bodies in astounding ways to the drums that are Step’s trademark and reason for being. This year’s company consisted of Kwadjo Bediako, Nya Christian, Jerod Coleman, Ariel Dykes, Keomi Givens, Jr, Terrence Johnson, Conrad R. Kelly II, Jayden King, Jemeema S. Montrose, Isaiah O’Connor, Keondre Pascal, Keanu Powell, Ericka Still, Joseph Vasquez, Robert Warnsley, and Treshawn Williams.) All of this presided over once again by emcee Pelham Warner Jr., displaying the highest possible level of swagger.
An essential part of this holiday step show is the dance-off between the women and the men dancers. This year, it was the Fairies (women) vs. the Elves (men). In addition to the stellar dancing, boasting and shade-throwing is required from both teams. The audience gets to judge which team is the best. Even though I always wonder who will garner the most audience response, the competition inevitably reaches its annual conclusion: “We step better when we step together.”
Washington, DC, is more than the seat of power that the world knows it to be. It is also home to thousands of diverse and artistic residents. C. Brian Williams, founder of Step Afrika! and a Howard University graduate, knows this. The troupe’s winter show has come to hold almost as central a place in The District’s identity as the annual Sweet Honey in the Rock concerts were during DC’s Chocolate City era. The show has become a tradition that helps to heal and hold the spirit of the people of this city together, across their various ethnicities and cultures.
Throughout the year, Step Afrika! presents shows that tell the painful history of Black people in the United States (Drumfolk, and The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence are two that come to mind). These productions have toured during other parts of the year. None of the pain and suffering that is present in those shows is seen in the winter show. Instead, Step Afrika! invites us to participate in a cleansing ritual of joy that is aggressive, intense, serious, and utterly irresistible. This “joy coma,” as Wilkins has named it, is not mere distraction or entertainment. This is joy that is the essence of resistance to the denial of one’s humanity. And Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show does not take “no: for an answer.
People: Bring your children. OK?
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show plays through December 23, 2025, presented by Step Afrika! performing on the Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St SW, Washington, DC. Tickets ($49–$112) may be obtained here, by phone at 202-488-3300 (Tuesday–Sunday, 12–8 p.m.), in person at the Sales Office (starting 2 hours before curtain on show days), or through TodayTix.
Arena Stage offers savings programs including “pay your age” tickets for those aged 35 and under, student discounts, and “Southwest Nights” for those living and working in the District’s Southwest neighborhood. To learn more, visit arenastage.org/savings-programs.
The program for Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is online here.
