The Era Tried to Teach Me How to Footwork and I Still Sucked

The first thing that becomes very clear when you're lucky enough go out to a club with me is that I'm not a smooth mover. My dance repertoire stretches as far as stepping from side to side like Pingu needing to take a piss in that episode where his dad beats fuck out of him for not reaching the toilet. I'm not certain that I can't dance, I just don't think I've found my niche yet.

Enter footwork.

As a fan of the genre for a number of years, I thought I'd be more than qualified to attend a dance class by celebrated footwork crew The Era at the hallowed Pineapple Dance Studios. Put together by London events series Clock Strikes 13, the class aimed to shine a light on the rich dance culture that runs through the scene, making it one of the few worldwide art forms where the dance and the music inspire each other simultaneously.

Heading into the studios, I wondered if I'd made a massive mistake. Was a devout appreciation for the culture a reason alone to try it? Or would I fall flat on my arse in front of a room full of people I respected and maybe Louie Spence. Well Louie Spence wasn't there, but one thing I will say is that I probably messed up by attending the second class of two. Not only did I get to see the people before me fucking kill it, but it also gave people in the first class the chance to stay on, doubling both their experience and the likelihood of them making me look like a tit.

Starting slowly, The Era's Litebulb and Chief Manny took us through a number of moves. Even at a quarter of the pace, footworking makes you sweat. It's easy to point at YouTube and say "That looks fucking well mental mate," but being there trying to replicate complex dance moves and keep your unmentionables from sticking to your leg is nigh on impossible.

Starting with simple drills, we were told to keep stepping on tip toes to a beat. This is where my footworking skill ended. We were also shown the "Erk & Jerk", triplets of kicking your leg out before swiftly tucking it up and kicking it out again, something I should've been able to do, but my brain couldn't seem to process alternating feet. Other moves included "Skates" and "Dribbles", and you guessed it! I had no fucking clue how to make my feet work enough for it to look anywhere as decent as the masters that were making it look so easy. This didn't matter as much as I thought though, as the backstories behind each move gave another value of the lessons for those just realising they have the cognitive dexterity of a sloth on ket binge.

While dancing at a quarter of the speed of footworking was a challenge, I could only really stand back and scratch my head at those really going for it. Litebulb and Manny were incredibly patient teachers, and probably pretty brave too, considering a large amount of the room had no prior experience and smelled like they were sweating out fairly hefty hangovers. They pushed through though, helping us to understand each move by explaining its history and how the dance came to look the way it does now. They also seemed especially grateful that we'd all taken the time to learn about the culture of the footwork movement, inviting us all to become a part of The Era's family, even if my limited skills meant I took the role of the slightly embarrassing cousin that no one talks about.

The Era were very keen to point out that these sessions were merely an introduction to the art of footwork, and that they wanted to prepare those that came to be able to take what they learned and build on it. To become a legitimately credible footworker takes years of practice, but their main objective was to give us the belief that we could continue footworking in London and build our own crew, helping to create a worldwide footwork network. While this may be a dream at the moment, Manny knows the reality may not be far off; "If we can get a footwork scene going everywhere and bring the culture to all these different places, footwork's going to be the biggest thing."

After the class, I sat down with Litebulb, Chief Manny and DJ Paypal to talk about footwork's heritage, its growth, and changing the perception of not only dance, but art as a whole. You can read what went down then next week, when we catch up with the gang and present you with a brand new documentary about the scene.

Meet The Era is a short documentary that shows Chicago footwork from a footworker's perspective. Shot and edited over the last year with director Wills Glasspiegel, the short features dance portraits of each member in The Era. Glasspiegel (who also directed Icy Lake) is currently working with The Era and Teklife to produce a feature length documentary about footwork.

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