At the Folly Theater on Friday evening, April 5, the dancers of Step Afrika! make their rousing and rhythmic way across the stage to heart-pounding beats and changing cadences.
Founded in 1994 by C. Brian Williams, Step Afrika! is the first professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. This percussive dance form blends African and Polynesian traditions with modern culture. Performances include dramatic body movements with clapping, body slapping, vocalizations, stomping, and, of course, stepping. There is no accompanying music—simply the sounds that can be made with the body.
By the mid-20th century, stepping was popular on HBCU campuses. Today, stepping thrills audiences around the world.
Part of the Harriman-Jewell Series, Step Afrika! performances integrate songs, storytelling, humor, and audience participation.
Ravel’s Boléro and Xavier Foley’s Soul Bass
From April 5 through 7, the Kansas City Symphony led by Michael Stern performs two works by early 20th-century composer Maurice Ravel and one by contemporary composer and double bass player Xavier Foley.
What links these pieces together is music’s power to mesmerize.
In Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, the composer—deeply affected by the loss of life in World War I—pays homage to six friends, not by lamenting but by celebrating the beauty of the world. The rhythmic Boléro sweeps us along on its musical journey.
Xavier Foley’s Soul Bass wows with his virtuoso playing and melodious sound from the double bass, an instrument rarely used as a solo. Foley performs this work with symphonies throughout the country.
Angel Lam presents the world premiere of a new work, as yet untitled, that she is also performing with symphonies in cities across America. Lam learned to play ancient Chinese zithers as a child, and her work explores hidden memories and human experience. She is a Grammy-nominated composer who also writes short stories for her compositions.
The Kansas City Art Institute Gallery
April is a great time to check out the Kansas City Art Institute’s intimate gallery on its Warwick Avenue campus, open to the public during limited times or by appointment.
The gallery is a collaborative effort among established artists who visit, artists in residence, and KCAI students. A recent exhibit Ann Johnson: Visibly Unseen features the world of this interdisciplinary artist who refers to herself as “Sole Sister,” exploring images and issues affecting the Black community. She imprints photo-imagistic “stories” on cotton, ironing boards, leaves, branches, and other found objects, suggesting the ephemeral nature of Black people seen every day who seem not to leave a visible trace of their existence. Selected KCAI students also contributed their work to the exhibit.
The gallery has also hosted spoken-word performances and exhibitions that come to sudden life with dancers and music. The gallery is a space that contains, but does not limit, the bounds of creativity.
The KCAI Gallery is open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment.
For more information, contact kcaigallery@kcai.edu.
Bach Aria Soloists’ Spring Concert
Spring has sprung. Can you feel it? If you need a little nudge to get that welcome bout of spring fever, you might want to get tickets for Bach Aria Soloists’ finale to their 24th Concert Season. On Saturday evening, April 20, BAS will perform their Spring Concert at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in midtown.
With music joyous and uplifting, the concert includes Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ masterpiece Piece d’Orgue featuring organist/harpsichordist Elisa Williams Bickers, and the great sonatas from Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms. For these master composers, chamber music was a vital mode of expression, performance, and social interaction, so much more intimate than an orchestral setting.
Bach Aria Soloists, led by founder and artistic director Elizabeth Suh Lane, continues to enthrall audiences with the brilliance of their guiding light, Johann Sebastian Bach, and his influence on his contemporaries leading up to today’s composers and musicians. The Soloists include sparkling soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson; multi-talented Elisa Williams Bickers on harpsichord-organ-piano; and acclaimed cellist Hannah Collins.