do other parts of the states have this kind of competitive dancing, i know you have uprocking etc, but are jitting and hyphy stuff competitive, do they do that dancing in a circle too, or is it more or less just a chicago thing ?
Also when and what kinda time did people switch from just dancing to music in a club to footwork in the circle, did the dance adapt to the music or the music adapt to the audience?
Also who are the crews are they school mates, little gangs of kids etc?
Different regions have different dances. In northern california where hyphy is popular, a super awesome better dance is around that actually revived my love for hip hop, turfin. The actual youtube page for this video is one of the best archives of various dance battle cultures battlin against each other.
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And I have yet to see something as freeflowing as footworking. There's no buzzer, no one really on the mic that often, and the only time the music really stops is when the power goes out. But b-boys, jitters in Detroit, turf dancers, memphis buckin folks all got their own dance cultures. And most often, the circle gets as small as humanly possible. People wanna see, so they inch closer and closer to get the best view...until someone gets hit in the face with a shoe, haha.
As for the switch to footworking, it really depends on what is playing. Luckily, most hip hop nowadays is at 80 bpm, so switching to a 160 bpm track is incredibly easy..and that's when you get people booty shakin...and eventually, you'll get the tracks that make people wanna footwork. It really depends on the party you go too, stuff like Battlegroundz and Warzone is 100% dedicated to footworkers, so they don't have to wait in a party for 3 hours to hear a 30 minute juke mix that they could dance too.
And the footwork groups are diverse as hellllll. Some are just high school buddies, some are lifelong friends that all knew what they were doing, and there are some you have to audition to get in. And I've seen people at the age of 35 footworking, so it only re-affirms the point that it's not just some youth thing, it's truly something of the community. A lot of the early groups like House-O-Matics (the name alone gives you an idea of how much this stuff is a descendant of house music), have changed up their image a bit, but a lot of their former members are still involved with the community in various forms. Rp Boo, Spinn, and Rashad all came from House-O-Matics, but Boo created Gutta Thugz, and Spinn & Rashad joined Wolf Pac. Wolf Pac is still around, and their members are all aroudn the age of 21-25. The head of Terra Squad, AG, learned a lot from House-O-Matics leader, Ant Brown, as well as members of Wolf Pac like Que. It's completely complex, but believe me when I say that there's plenty of love, and the groups of old are still around not just passing on moves, but trying to maintain such an amazing culture.
Now on to soul_pill's point:
that the kids who attend 'juke parties' take pills, do you think that ecstasy has influenced the sound and the tempo of how footwork and juke have evolved musically? Do you know of dancers taking pills? or is this just misinformation and a red herring...
I know people get drunk at parties, I know people smoke weed at parties...but ecstasy is probably not the best thing to do at either a juke or footwork party. You need as much energy as possible, and if you're doing footworking, there's no way in hell you can footwork while on X. I'm sorry, I just don't see that shit happening, haha. And there's a few tracks talking about rolling, poppin pills and ish like that, I even know a few dancers who pop pills, but not when it comes time to be on the dance floor, it just doesn't make any sense. Footworking is one of the most energy consuming dances out there. You're literally hitting stuff at 160 bpm nonstop, and you're in a battle mentality...rolling just doesn't happen.
And like I said, some tracks are made while people are high, as seen in this video:
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but this really isn't rave music to us at all. I know a few people who've played footwork tracks to rave parties, and people loved the hell out of it, but out here, it's really not the case.
this actually reminds me of my first time really listening to chicago house music. I was with a whole bunch of mid-30 year old black men who could not stop talking about women, calling some people faggots, and other words like that, but they were listening to house and disco music! it was the most puzzling scene in my life, but I realized then that this music was appropriated by the gay community, as well as the european community, and the black influence and innovations in house music were virtually unknown, even to myself! But yeah, thats a lil off subject.
Finally, I wanted to bring up this point:
Actually given how (admirably) pretentious a forum Dissensus is, I'm quite surprised no-ones compared footworking to Jazz yet. The improvisation, virtuosity and spontaneity in the dancing made me think of it from the first time I saw a Footworking video on youtube.
We actually have been talking to the Floor Technicians, and were supposed to create some battle while the guys were in Europe. As I mentioned before, Rashad was a footworker, so it would have been awesome. However, the UK immigration department had their own ideas.
But really, the jazz fusion scene is extremely similar to ours. Both cultures were gully as hell, and both cultures came out of the disco/house scene. Whats amazing is that footwork culture now is starting to appropriate a lot of the tracks and influences that made the uk jazz scene. for instance, roy ayers, lonnie liston smith, mandre, and dexter wensel are all things that have made footwork tracks as of late either more soulful, more jazzy, or more synthy. To go back to where I was talking about rave music, a lot of our style now is going back to more spacey jazz sounds. Its actually amazing to me to see new up and coming producers actively digging through crates, and despite the fact I'm 23, going through my massive record collection to try and find jazz breaks. It's reallllllllllllllllly amazing to see a revival of the crate digging culture!!!!!!!
Aight people, it's 4:38 am here, I'm goin back to sleep!