Walker Art Center presents
The Era Footwork Crew
IN THE WURKZ
Friday and Saturday, October 22 and 23, 2021
8 pm (CDT), McGuire Theater
The Era Footwork Crew
IN THE WURKZ
Written and directed by The Era Footwork Crew
Choreography by The Era Footwork Crew
Music by The Era Footwork Crew and Teklife
Projections by The Era Footwork Crew
THE ERA FOOTWORK CREW
Jamal "Litebulb" Oliver
Brandon "Chief Manny" Calhoun
Jemal "P-Top" De la Cruz
Sterling "Steelo" Lofton
William "Wills" Glasspiegel
Featuring
Syd "Sydfalls" Falls
Morris "DJ Spinn" Harper
Additional music: Jana Rush, DJ Manny and DJ Earl
Musical director: DJ Spinn
Creative director: Wills Glasspiegel
Choreographic mentor: Raphael Xavier
Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes, including intermission
Program
Body of the City
Jordan Ones
In That Circle
Prize
Stacking Shelves
Train Tracks
(intermission with DJ Spinn and Sydfalls)
White Walls
Juke Party
They Pick the Speed
Juke Reprise
Scanner
Under Pressure
Ambient
Hearts Pacing
Footwork Saves Lives
Open the Circle
About The Era Footwork Crew
THE ERA FOOTWORK CREW are tradition-bearers for Chicago footwork. The group started before it had a name, as high school friends who loved footwork battling. Jamal “Litebulb” Oliver, Sterling “Steelo” Lofton, and Brandon K. Calhoun came together at a young age on the South Side of Chicago in the early 2000s. The Era has since expanded to include members operating across mediums and fields, including dancer Jemal “P-Top” De La Cruz, filmmaker Wills Glasspiegel, DJ Spinn, and DJ Syd Falls.
The Era are both performers and educators. They develop curriculum and teach footwork in Chicago Public Schools. They also run a summer camp for youth in Chicago and often teach footwork workshops at universities, galleries, and community centers. Prominent Chicago artist Theaster Gates has described The Era as “national treasures.” Foundations such as the Joyce Foundation, the Field Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the MacArthur Foundation have recognized The Era with support. In 2019, New England Foundation for The Arts awarded The Era its National Dance Project grant for their show IN THE WURKZ. In 2021, The Era debuted Footnotes, a massive animated public art projection for the facade of the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, featured in The New York Times.
About Footwork
Chicago footwork started as an improvised battle dance to the sounds of house music on the west side of Chicago in the 1980s. The first footwork dance move is considered to be "the holy ghost," an animated interpretation of spirit possession. Ghosting spread throughout Chicago in the '90s and new moves were added to it to develop a citywide dance tradition. Footwork spawned its own style of electronic music as well, pioneered by artists like RP Boo, DJ Clent, DJ Rashad, and DJ Spinn. In the 2000s, the Internet sent Chicago footwork out to the world. Today, there are Chicago footwork dancers and music producers in far-flung cities across ages, abilities, genders and backgrounds. At home in Chicago, footwork remains a community building and lifesaving dance, music, and extended family.
Read More
"We shared the belief that footwork is more than just music and more than just dance."
In his essay "Each One, Teach One: Footwork in Minnesota", recently published by MnArtists, Wills Glasspiegel of the Era highlights the dancers and DJs that helped bring this culture to life in the Twin Cities.
About the Artists
JAMAL "LITEBULB" OLIVER is a dancer and dance activist at the forefront of footwork culture in Chicago. Known for the intricacy and creativity of his dancing, Litebulb has performed with leading artists such as Chance the Rapper and DJ Rashad. Since 2009, he has traveled to international stages, from PS1 MoMA to the Barbican in London. Litebulb co-founded The Era in 2014. His practice is both intensely local and broadly international. In 2017, he co-founded Open the Circle, a nonprofit organization devoted to channeling financial resources into low-income communities through the arts. He has received awards and grants for his innovative work, including recognition as a “dancer of the year” in Dance Magazine, and artist grants from Chicago Dancemakers Forum, the Field Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
BRANDON K. CALHOUN aka “Chief Manny” (director, writer, editor, animator) is a Chicago footwork dancer, dance educator and filmmaker. As a filmmaker, Brandon’s direction and hand-drawn animations accentuate footwork’s rhythms and phrases, revealing dance as a visual language. His animations drive the recent projection, Footnotes, a video made for large-scale display on the facade of the Merchandise Mart (the Mart) in Chicago. As a dance filmmaker, Brandon has produced and edited dozens of short videos for Chicago Dancemakers Forum, beginning in 2017. His dance films and videos have screened at the Chicago Cultural Center, University of Chicago, Theaster Gates’ Stony Island Arts Bank and other respected venues. A cultural organizer and multidisciplinary artist, Brandon also performs poetry and footwork in an award-winning new multimedia footwork performance by The Era, IN THE WURKZ.
JEMAL "P-TOP" DE LA CRUZ, or “Legendary Top” as he’s known widely in Chicago, is an icon of footwork dancing. A bonafide “hometown hero,” P-Top represents the Uptown neighborhood on the north side of Chicago footwork. P-Top danced in the film Manglehorn with Al Pacino and has performed footwork across the world and in several countries. P-Top has also performed alongside Chance the Rapper. Before joining The Era, P-Top was affiliated with the dance group Goon Squad. Beyond dancing, P-Top has worked a multitude of jobs from crossing guard to caring for the elderly. He has four young sons, footwork dancers of the future. P-Top runs a regular footwork dance event in Chicago known as "The Ring," which targets and empowers youth in low-income communities.
STERLING "STEELO" LOFTON is recognized among the top footwork dancers in the world. He came to prominence as a battle dancer in the legendary clique Terra Squad. In 2014, Steelo co-founded The Era Footwork Crew and began to tour internationally. He has danced at festivals such as Pitchfork and Lollapalooza. Steelo was recognized as a choreographer of the year (New City Magazine) and cultural organizer of the year (FADER Magazine) alongside The Era. Steelo is focused on the fashion side of dancing, helping to design merchandise and visual art to represent footwork and The Era. He created "footwork saves lives,'' a campaign to help bring awareness to footwork as a positive outlet for youth in Chicago. Steelo recently started his own fashion line called "Stitched by Steelo." He was awarded an honorary doctorate from South Shore High School for his community service through dance. Steelo’s rapping and lyricism has been featured on several mixtapes and he was interviewed in multiple documentaries from The Chicago Tribune to VICE. “Footworker’s boots,” a pair of Timberland boots customized by Steelo, was featured in The Era’s art gallery show at the Hokin Project in 2014. He lives and works on the east side of Chicago.
SYDFALLS is a multifaceted DJ, artist, photographer and fashion model. As a model, Syd appears in campaigns by leading designers like Fenty and Burberry. Syd's NTS radio show Sylk is Smooth focuses often on the music of Chicago, their hometown. Their photographs can be seen on the NTS website and in the book, The Southside, by Natalie Moore.
MORRIS "DJ SPINN" HARPER has been making juke and footwork music in Chicago since he was a teenager growing up in the south suburbs of the city. He currently heads the Teklife Label. Spinn's dance anthems from the 90s and 2000s like "Bounce and Break Yo Back," still regularly play at Chicago parties and on the radio. Alongside his former partner DJ Rashad, who passed away several years ago, Spinn introduced footwork, a long-running, underground Chicago tradition to audiences and artists across the world. Spinn is now signed to the prestigious London-based label Hyperdub, and he continues to tour the world, representing the Chicago footwork sound past and future. DJ Spinn has also worked in the field of DJ education for many years, mentoring artists across the world and collaborating with Chicago-based arts nonprofit Open the Circle.
WILLS GLASSPIEGEL is a filmmaker, artist, scholar and community organizer from Chicago. As a journalist, he has produced public radio segments for All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and was recognized as a co-recipient of a Peabody Award in 2014. Since 2016, he has worked as an artist and filmmaker with The Era Footwork Crew, including as creative director for The Era's touring performance, IN THE WURKZ. In 2017, he co-founded the arts and racial justice nonprofit, Open the Circle. Wills' work across fields has been recognized with prizes from the MacArthur Foundation, the Field Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Chicago. He recently directed Footnotes, an animated projection for the facade of the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago (Art on theMART).Wills is completing a PhD program in African American Studies and American Studies at Yale University. He is now working with The Era on a permanent installation film, Skywalkers, for the new international terminal at O'Hare Airport.
WALKER ART CENTER STAFF
Director and Senior Curator, Performing Arts – Philip Bither
Senior Program Officer, Performing Arts – Julie Voigt
Associate Curator, Performing Arts - Doug Benidt
Administrator & Curatorial Assistant, Performing Arts - Molly Hanse
Development Associate, Special Projects – Megan Dunn
Performing Arts Specialist, Visitor Experience – Rosa Raarup
Visitor Experience Associates – Jazz Castañeda, Lilly Knopf, Michelle Maser, and Deborah Meyer
Production Manager – Wyatt Heatherington Tilka
Lighting Designer – Jon Kirchhofer
Audio Supervisor – Douglas Livesay
Photography of The Era by Wills Glasspiegel.
Acknowledgements
Producers' Council
Premier Partner
Technology Partner
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Thank you, Walker members, for your generous support.