Cast of 'American Street Dancer' demonstrates Detroit, Chicago and Philly styles

The New York Times invited members of Rennie Harris’s touring production, “American Street Dancer,” to demonstrate the fundamentals of three regional street-dance styles: Detroit Jit, Chicago Footwork and Philadelphia GQ. The piece traces common roots of street dance in African rhythms and American tap and situates the three styles as city-specific branches of that lineage.

The article notes that most new street moves in America have historically been invented by Black Americans and then adapted more widely, while some practitioners keep a style alive and pass it on with pride. Detroit Jit was linked in the story to a 1970s group called the Jitterbugs and to tap teams of the swing era, filtered through Motown choreography.

Michael Manson Jr., leader of House of Jit, acknowledged the Jitterbugs’ importance and described the foundation as coming from tap, saying elders recalled that dancers “didn’t take classes. We imitated what we saw on TV.” The New York Times piece highlighted basic Jit moves such as the shuffle and the Kick Wiggle Back.

Chicago Footwork, the account says, emerged in the late 1980s and ’90s alongside sped-up house music known as juke, producing frenetic swivels and scissoring used in dance battles. Donnetta Jackson and Eddie Martin Jr.

Key Topics

Culture, American Street Dancer, Rennie Harris, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia