In the spring of 2021, Maxine Lyle arrived at MASS MoCA to workshop STEP SHOW: The Musical, a new theatrical production that showcases African American step dance and its role in Black college life. Infusing body percussion with hip-hop, R&B, and soul, this intergenerational coming-of-age story takes a riveting ride through the world of step dance and its imprint on Black culture. The characters usher the audience into the atmosphere of a traditional step show, inviting them to join in raucous verbal and rhythmic call and responses and tune their ears to heavy, bass-driven beats. STEP SHOW considers the stakes for self and community when the transference of a powerful oral and physical lineage is lost or interrupted in Black bodies and Black spaces.

Two years later, the company returned to MASS MoCA in 2023 to perform a work-in-progress version of the show in the Hunter Center.