This one in particular with the lady. [Sherman points to Panel No. 57, which shows one woman dressed in white mopping a floor. Lawrence wrote in the caption: “The female workers were the last to arrive north.”]
As well as this one here. This one we really like.
[He points to Panel No. 45, which shows a family on a train looking out the window at smokestacks. Lawrence wrote: “The migrants arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North.”]
This one in particular, you look at the motifs, and the pyramid in this one. The blackbirds in this one. [He points to Panel No. 3, which shows a group of people headed north as blackbirds fly overhead.]
Williams: When we saw that panel [Panel No. 1, which shows a crowd at a train station heading into gates marked Chicago, New York, St. Louis] in particular and Chicago is mentioned, we had already choreographed a piece called ‘Chicago.’
It’s about movement and sound of the streets. Here, she is waiting. [He points to Panel No. 39, which shows a woman in purple waiting for a train. Lawrence writes: “Railroad platforms were piled high with luggage.”] How do we pull this image off the page? The luggage, we will definitely be playing with that.
Smithgall: Some of the motifs in a sense are recurring: the luggage, the train.
Williams: What makes Step Afrika! unique in this particular story is the concept of the train, the importance of the train. The train image is so huge in different cultures.
In the Migration, it is essential to travel. In stepping, there is a movement called the Alpha Train. . . . That particular style of movement, that is specific to one fraternity. The step basically imitates the sound of the train. It is tied to the culture of migration. In South Africa, one of our main partners, historically, the train was critical in moving migrant workers into the big cities and Johannesburg, which led to the creation of the South African gumboot dance, which is a dance, a percussive dance style Step Afrika! performs as well.
Akpan: For the stepper, knowing the history of how stepping started really parallels with the story of the migration. So people coming from the South to the North, trying to get better educational opportunities. Stepping started through the fraternities and sororities, where people were going to colleges. These movements were translated into stepping. It started with early African American traditions, which you will see in our show.
Sherman: In most African forums, the drum is the beginning. And so we are opening our show with the drum and a drum will be a consistent theme throughout the whole show.
Inez K. Saki-Tay, Step Afrika! publicist: In your research about Jacob Lawrence, what was the one thing that said, ‘This is my a-ha moment’ in this process?
Sherman: I struggled for a long time with how to make the connection and how to make it important. How to really bring a visual art form, bring a painting to life on stage in a meaningful way. I sort of like went into the shed to be quiet for a moment and figure out . . . what it is.
Stepping is the tool that we use. For me, stepping is like our paintbrush. Our paint is Lawrence’s work. Our subject matter is “The Migration Series.” Although that may seem simple, that linear thinking, for me to be able to put that in a sentence to say this is what we are doing: This is our palette, this is our medium, this is our subject matter and this is what we use to paint a picture. From then on, I could make the decisions about the show.
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