Footwork (genre)

Footwork is a style of house dance/street dance that originated in Chicago in the early 1990s.[2]

The dance involves fast movement of the feet with accompanying twists and turns, and usually takes place as part of a "battle".[3] The style was popularized outside Chicago by inclusion in the music video for Dude 'n Nem's 2007 single "Watch My Feet".[4]

The music style has evolved from the earlier, rapid rhythms of juke and ghetto house, a change pioneered by RP Boo.[3] It may draw from styles such as House music, Hip Hop, R&B.[5] Tracks also frequently feature heavily syncopated samples from rap, pop and other sources, and are often around 160 bpm.[6] Footwork also incorporates the club culture cultivated in disco, Jazz and Classical music.

Radio station Afropop Worldwide remarked on the genre and its developments in 2011, saying that:

The most recent development in house's evolution, however, is a sound called 'footwork'. On Friday evenings at the Underground Tracks Factory, teenagers face off and improvise footwork dance battles. Their feet fly at insane speeds, something of a cross between house dance, tap dancing and breakdancing footwork. It looks like a dance from another dimension. The music they dance to is related to juke, but it's way more spacious, with more rhythmic complexity. Some tracks like "Reverb" by DJ Rashad are downright experimental walls of pulsating noise that would make John Cage proud. All these styles speak to the truth that house music never really left Chicago, as is often said. Its legacy continues to reverberate and mutate throughout the city.[7]