This year's DSANI Buddy Walk will have some soul.

The featured performers at the Down Syndrome Association of Northeast Indiana event Saturday at Foster Park will be the Soul Brothers, a hip-hop dance group consisting of four men with Down syndrome.

“They just happen to have become a little bit of a sensation,” said Lisa Root, an owner at the local Premiere Dance Company, where the guys take dance lessons.

The group grew out of a hip-hop dance class for guys with special needs that Root began offering about two years ago at her studio, the Down Syndrome Association (DSANI) said in a news release. She wanted to offer a class that would be enjoyed by her brother, David Miller, 44, who has Down syndrome.

Root already had been offering a jazz dance class for young women with special needs.

Her brother suggested their group perform a dance routine to the Blues Brothers' song “Soul Man,” Root said in a phone interview. Along with Miller, the group includes Austin Hamman, 21, Michael Peoples, 17, and Jordan Blevins, 16.

The foursome made their debut as entertainment before the awards ceremony at an Indiana High School Dance Team Association competition in January at Homestead High School, where Hamman, Peoples and Blevins are students, Root said. The crowd loved it, and they have gone on to perform several other times, including at the DSANI annual meeting, the group's Friendship Club's formal dance, a benefit event in Merrillville and a wedding rehearsal in Chicago.

The Soul Brothers have really enjoyed their ride, Root said.

“They talk about being famous,” she said. “They like the attention.” So much so they have been known occasionally to throw a little improvisation into their act, she added.

They're also already planning for next year.

They are working on a new routine they expect to unveil at the dance competition at Homestead this February, Root said.

The music: ZZ Top's “Sharp Dressed Man.”