Go to any club across the world where house music is being played and the dancing on display is a familiar tumble of sweaty writhing, shuffling feet and hands in the air. But thirty years after Chicago birthed the 4x4 beat and changed dance music forever, footwork arrived. Its contemporary crews wanted to, said Dazed Digital, “reinsert the dancer back into the history of house”, with moves that appear to defy gravity. Footwork is so fast, in fact – in time with the genre’s 160bpm polyrhythms – that it looks like its dancers might take flight. It remains a largely macho pursuit but this mini-doc – with music by one of footwork’s lone female producers, Jlin – shows that there is a growing female contingent keen to reclaim their place not just in its history but in its future, too. “Footwork is male-dominated and oriented around brotherhood,” said journalist Will Glasspiegel, who created the video with dancer Kenesha ‘Murdamommy’ Sheridan. “But we wanted to show how key women are to its longevity as a dance and music genre .”

a film by kenesha sheridan and wills glasspiegel

produced by the era footwork crew | murdamommy | open the circle | queen crystal

music by jlin |featuring her song "i am the queen" from the album FREE FALL

opening monologue by kenesha sheridan aka murdamommy

interlude interviews with toniqua boden | enjoli johnson

jawanna / ms. jay | jillian carew | sha'dawn battle

directed and edited by wills glasspiegel and the era

choreography by murda mommy | queen crystal | apps | diamond

camera by wills glasspiegel | litebulb | brandon calhoun | spencer hopkins

co-produced by drew alt and aina fadina

special thanks to k-phi-9 | bringing out talent | empire

and to the djs at the rink - dj chip and dj clent

ending music by dj mc