Seton Hill is proud to present Step Afrika, the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping, an art form based in African traditions. Step Afrika is critically acclaimed for its efforts to promote an appreciation for stepping, and serves as a model for the use of stepping in educational settings, espousing themes such as teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. Step Afrika reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year and has performed on many stages in North & South America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Step Afrika will perform at Seton Hill on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 8 p.m. in Cecilian Hall on Seton Hill’s Greensburg, Pa. campus. The performance is free and open to the public.

For more information on Step Afrika’s Seton Hill performance, please contact Jaimie Steel, director of activities and commuter life, at 724-830-1076 or steel@setonhill.edu.

Based in Washington, DC, Step Afrika has been featured on CNN, BET, PBS & NPR as well as numerous books, documentaries and articles that seek to explore the tradition of stepping. Step Afrika serves as a cultural ambassador for the United States, representing the nation at events around the world through special invitations from American embassies. Its signature event, the annual Step Afrika International Cultural Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the fruit of a ten-year collaboration with the Soweto Dance Theatre that unites artists from around the world in dialogue and dance performance. Step Afrika completes an annual 50-city tour of American colleges and universities from Maine to Mississippi. Step Afrika frequently conducts residencies, master classes and in-school performances for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and in schools and community-based organizations around the world.

Seton Hill University, founded by the Sisters of Charity, is a coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pa. Chartered in 1918, Seton Hill offers more than 30 undergraduate programs and nine graduate programs, including an MBA. Seton Hill brings the world to its students through its distinguished lecturers and nationally and internationally renowned centers. Recognized three times by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities, Seton Hill has also been named one of the Best in the Northeast by The Princeton Review and one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 Businesses by Pennsylvania Business Central. In addition, Seton Hill has been named a University of Distinction by Colleges of Distinction, an organization founded by a group of concerned parents, educators and admissions professionals. For more information on Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu or call 1-800-826-6234.

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Media contacts:

Becca Baker, Associate Director of Media Relations
724-830-1069 / 724-689-3599 (cell) / bbaker@setonhill.edu

Jaimie Steel, Director of Activities and Commuter Life
724-830-1076 /steel@setonhill.edu