Thump meet the era chicago dance feat
Director Wills Glasspiegel places the Chicago footwork scene under the microscope to follow the moves of rising dance crews THE ERA and Teklife in the documentary short Meet The Era. The appetizer ahead of a full-length feature documentary, the footage produced and presented by THUMP provides an introduction to the crews that tell the story of footwork culture, demonstrate their sick individual styles and reinforces their collective belief that black dance matters.
In Meet The Era, a new THUMP-produced documentary by Wills Glasspiegel, we meet a group of talented young people determined to preserve and push footwork culture forward in Chicago and beyond. Co-founded in 2014 by South Side native Litebulb, now 25, The Era brings together some of the city's finest battle dancers—including Chief Manny himself, as well as P-Top, Steelo, and Dempsey—all young Chicagoans spreading the message that footwork is an art form that brings music and dance together. "Please don't forget who's out there sweating blood and tears every day and giving their everything just for the music and moment itself," Bulb implores. "We bring those tracks to life."
Co-founder of THE ERA, Litebulb expands upon the importance of the footwork culture:
"We want to put the message out there that black dance matters, black dancers matter, footworkers matter," Bulb explains. "Why say it? Because we are marginalized. Layers of marginalization. Dance is marginalized in the art and in the music world. Black dance is marginalized in the dance world. Footwork is marginalized in the black world—it's not upper class. Not about money. It's not created by a university, or a gallery, or by the mayor's office. It's a do-it-yourself thing."
Watch the clip below to view the Meet The Era short doc. Get more on the short and the forthcoming full-length documentary from Glasspiegel via THUMP.
.
