Thursday night’s performance by the group Step Afrika played to a full house at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater.

The event, free to the public and sponsored by the U-M Library, was part of the 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium. Step Afrika is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping, in which the body is used to create intricate rhythms and sounds though a combination of footsteps, claps, and spoken words. This unique dance tradition was born out of the song and dance rituals practiced by historically African American fraternities in the early 1900s. Step Afrika promotes the use of the dance tradition as an educational tool for young people worldwide.