It started as a street show in England and has turned into one of the most popular acts in America.

Stomp, an explosive entourage of percussion and dancing thrown together to make candy for the ears and eyes, is coming to Des Moines once again.

The Stomp troupe consists of eight members, mostly drummers and dancers, who all share equal roles in the group.

“It’s kind of half and half,” Iowa native and Stomp member Cameron Newlin said. “There’s dancers and there’s drummers and percussionists and sometimes there’s just people who have natural rhythm that aren’t drummers and aren’t really dancers.”

Though the troupe doesn’t seek only drummers to be members, Newlin first found out about a Stomp audition in a “Modern Drummer” magazine.

“The ad said, ‘Blah blah blah, age 18 to 35, dancers who have rhythm and drummers who can move,’ stuff like that,” a slightly hung over Newlin echoed in the midst of an early morning groan.

When Stomp was put together for its American show about five years ago, the creators who made up most of the pieces of music were not too constricting.

“We had the freedom to put our own flavor in it and do what we wanted,” Newlin said. “But most of the music and most of the choreography is all written.”

One crazy day after another

As you can probably guess, being a member of Stomp isn’t easy. Each and every show puts Newlin and company through a gruesome workout.

“When we get a week or two off, we’re just like anyone else,” Newlin said. “Some people jog and some people lift weights. Whatever it takes to keep you going because the day you come back off of your vacation and you got to do that show, you’re going to die.”

With such a tough show and crazy schedule, it’s important that Stomp members maintain healthy, strong bodies. However, accidents happen, and it’s important to be ready when they do.

“We have four swings, which are like understudies but not really,” Newlin said. “They travel with you and they know more than one role and are able to give everybody at least one show off a week.”

A day in the life of Newlin is not without a little fun. His day begins around 10:30 every morning and is pretty routine after that.

“I hang out, stretch, eat, go to the theater and warm up, rehearse, do the show, go out, party, go to bed, wake up the next morning and do it all over again,” Newlin said.

A practice for Stomp isn’t quite what you would expect. Constantly being on the road makes for some pretty unorthodox practice sessions.

“It’s rhythm everywhere. You see us banging on stuff everywhere we go. It’s so addicting and part of what we are,” Newlin said. “Even if it’s on a bus stop sign somewhere or in an airport waiting for our flight, we’re practicing our shit there.”

On the road again

Like any other performer, Newlin has found that different cities offer different things as far as crowds and atmospheres.

“It’s always nice to hit the huge, huge cities every once in a while. And you know cities in Europe are pretty much going to kick ass,” Newlin said. “Every city rules for its own reason and sometimes the small towns kick ass because the people just love the show so much, and they are dying for energy. They just go nuts.”

After four years of one sell-out crowd after another, two national tours covering over 100 cities and a five-year run of continuous sell-outs at New York’s Orpheum Theater, the Stomp phenomenon has done nothing but snowball.

“It’s pretty much non-stop,” Newlin said. “We’re booked through next year already and have been for the last three years.”

Though there is no set time span for someone’s career in Stomp, the group is starting to see a surge of new members.

“Right now the average span is like three years,” Newlin said. “The people that started the American tours are just starting to quit. They’re getting other jobs or retiring. So right now [three years] is like the average.”

One thing that makes the constant road trips a little easier is the variety of people who make up the Stomp crew.

“We got guys from Hawaii and girls from Puerto Rico and a dude from Brazil,” Newlin said. “There’s everybody from a fast-food worker who wasn’t a drummer or a dancer to a trained person in all areas.”

With all the different backgrounds and specialty areas, it can be helpful to know someone with a similar background.

“It just depends,” Newlin said. “I’m a drummer, so it can be sometimes, and it’s not necessarily easier to talk to a drummer about something in the show that we need to work on or fix than it would be to talk to a dancer and try to explain it. But that’s just some kind of conversational barrier because they might not know what the hell you’re talking about.”

The man, the myth, the mystery

Newlin was born and raised in Cedar Rapids and later moved to Nevada.

“Pretty much the day I started high school, we moved to Reno,” Newlin said in his Steven Wright-style voice.

His career in drums started when he was 11 years old and resulted in a drum scholarship to the University of Nevada before he transferred to San Diego, where he ended up getting a job with Stomp.

Currently, in a year-and-a-half tenure with the group, Newlin has yet to find something he enjoys more, and he hasn’t quite made major plans for the future.

“I’m going to hang out and do this stuff for a while, then go back to Southern California when I’m done and see what happens,” Newlin said.

Stomp will pound its way through the Civic Center this weekend with shows on Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Tickets for the show run at $32.50, $28.50 and $18.50 and can be purchased at the Civic Center box office and all Ticketmaster Outlets.