Chicago footwork dance gets monthlong recognition: 'It's about community'

Dancer Jaron Boyd found his passion for footwork after a peer at Rich East High School in south suburban Park Forest taught him some moves. Now, that passion will officially be celebrated every August in Cook County.

“It's about community,” said Boyd, 39. “Chicago is a strong place, but growing up, it was very segregated. This style has brought those barriers down.”

On Thursday, Cook County officials gathered in the lobby of Chicago City Hall and the Cook County Building to sign a resolution declaring August Footwork Appreciation Month, in honor of the dance and music genre’s cultural legacy and impact on Chicago communities.

In attendance were Cook County Board Commissioner Tara Stamps, whose 1st District includes part of the West Side, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

“It offers structure where there's chaos, discipline where there's disruption and joy where there's been far too much pain,” Stamps said of the dance genre.

Footwork is a style of dance that originated on the South and West sides of Chicago in the late 1990s. It is often danced to juke music, a genre derived from ghetto house, a subgenre of house music characterized by its vocal samples, fast rhythms, heavy bass and punchy drums.

While on the floor, dancers keep up with a tempo of around 160 beats per minute.

“Footworking is more than just a dance,” Preckwinkle said. “It’s rhythm, resilience and resistance.”

Dancers flooded the dance floor before and after the resolution was signed, showing off their fast-paced moves while songs like, "It's Time for the Percolator," and "Bounce N Break Yo Back," echoed in the lobby.

Footworking has a gravitational pull, said ShaDawn Battle, an assistant professor at Xavier University and footworker. Battle, who is from Chatham, said the format of juke music is different from house genres, as the patterns within the music are sporadic.

“It gives the footworkers a chance to not be bound by any kind of structure,” Battle said. “It gives the footworkers a space for whatever they hear in those unpredictable patterns.”

Battle, 40, said while footworking doesn’t necessarily have the highbrow cultural value of ballet or other forms of dance, it is the life force for many people in Chicago.

“It’s something that was born in our trenches, and to see it penetrate spaces of power like this, it’s amazing,” she said.

Crystal James has been practicing her footwork skills since she was 14 years old.

Now 37, she confidently headed into the dance circle formed in the Cook County Building, surrounded by friends from the footwork community.

“I think I can speak for all footworkers. It’s some type of spiritual feeling,” James said. “I can’t really pinpoint it, but it’s like an out-of-body experience. It’s a good feeling.”

The West Pullman native said she teaches kids footworking, and that her own kids have even found an interest in the dance.

“I’ll be footworking until I’m 80, if I can,” she said.