MFONISO AKPAN

Mfoniso Akpan has trained extensively in tap, ballet, jazz, modern, African dance, hip-hop, and step. While attending the State University of New York at Stony Brook, she majored in biochemistry and molecular genetics, minored in dance all while cultivating her stepping skills as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Mfon began her training at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Apollo Theater, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Lincoln Center. Mfon toured with the off-Broadway show “Hoofin’ 2 Hittin,” where she was a featured stepper and dancer. She is the current Artistic Director of Step Afrika! where she has served in the role for the past seven years. She has been a performer and leader for the company for sixteen years. Step Afrika! promotes stepping as an educational tool for young people, focusing on teamwork, academic achievement, and cross-cultural understanding. The Company reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year through a 50-city tour of colleges and theaters and performs globally as Washington, DC’s one and only Cultural Ambassador. Under her leadership, the company has premiered off-Broadway, continued to tour extensively nationally and internationally, headlined President Barack Obama’s Black History Month Reception at The White House and the company is featured prominently at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History & Culture with the world’s first stepping interactive exhibit. Mfon also earned a 2010 Metro DC Dance Awards nomination for Outstanding New Work for a piece entitled "Umngane" for Step Afrika's 15th Anniversary-Home Performance Series Which she choreographed alongside Makeda Abraham and Aseelah Shareef. Mfon maintains that stepping is a National Treasure, an American cultural art form that is a keeper of history- past, present, and future that should be preserved, innovated and shared amongst the world. She continues to share her love of movement and education to students and art lovers across the globe.