Footwork lives in Chicago, even when it doesn’t. The movement—bleeding-edge club tunes fragmented from house, high-speed dance battles, and most crucially, the community of people who make it and ...

The fundraising landscape is shifting fast, and in 2025, the old rules no longer apply. Startups navigating flat, down, or extension rounds must be more strategic than ever in securing their next ...

When Jamal “Litebulb” Oliver started dancing in the Footwork scene, the Chicago-born style had just made its way to YouTube. Now, at least for a night, it’s at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The ...

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There’s a moment in Robert Townsend’s Motown-inspired film The Five Heartbeats in which Sarge, the titular vocal group’s newly appointed (and visibly drunk) choreographer, meets the group for the ...

Footwork is functional music at its core. It’s all in the name. Its purpose is to propel acrobatically nimble dancers into motion and send their feet flying. Drawing from the deep bowels of house and ...

Traxman, DJ Rashad, and DJ Spinn. Photos by Erez Avissar. Footwork tracks are customized to incite footwork dancing. So-called “battle tracks” exemplify the genre because they emphasize ...

In small corners of the globe, dancers are putting the pedal to the floor. In L.A. there's krumping. In Detroit, jit. In the South African town of Soweto, shangaan. All these types of dancing have one ...

Since the mid-'90s, a style of dance and a genre of music that share the name footwork have been livening up parties and late-night public access TV in Chicago. Now footwork is reaching beyond its ...