In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Chicago Illinois-based, The Era Footwork Crew members Sterling “Steelo” Lofton and Brandon “Chief Manny” Calhoun. The Era Footwork Crew are pioneers of the battle dance known as Chicago footwork. They have performed from Japan to Peru, performing and choreographing alongside leading artists such as Chance the Rapper, DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn, and Theaster Gates. The Era's work has been in short documentaries by VICE, the Canadian Broadcast Company, and the Chicago Tribune.
In this episode, NCCAkron's Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke enters the 'studio' with Chicago Illinois-based, The Era Footwork Crew members Sterling “Steelo” Lofton and Brandon “Chief Manny” Calhoun. The Era Footwork Crew are pioneers of the battle dance known as Chicago footwork. They have performed from Japan to Peru, performing and choreographing alongside leading artists such as Chance the Rapper, DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn, and Theaster Gates. The Era's work has been in short documentaries by VICE, the Canadian Broadcast Company, and the Chicago Tribune.
INTRODUCTION: Thanks for joining us Inside The Dancer’s Studio, where we bring listeners like you closer to the creative process. Inside The Dancer’s Studio is a program of the National Center for Choreography in Akron, Ohio, as part of our Ideas in Motion initiative. This episode was recorded as an ongoing documentation practice with NCCAkron visiting artists in 2023-2024. Today we are joined by Christy Bolingbroke, our Executive/Artistic Director, in conversation with Chicago, Illinois - based, The Era Footwork Crew members Sterling “Steelo” Lofton and Brandon “Chief Manny” Calhoun. The Era Footwork Crew are pioneers of the battle dance known as Chicago footwork. They have performed from Japan to Peru performing and choreographing along leading artists such as Chance the Rapper, DJ Rashad, DJ Spin, and Theaster Gates. The Era's work has been in short documentaries by Vice, the Canadian Broadcast Company, and the Chicago Tribune.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: So, to start off, I'd love to welcome you guys to first just tell us what is The Era because you truly operate I think wholly different than a lot of other dance companies and makers in the country.
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: The Era Footwork Collective is just that. It's a collective assembled to push an art form, to push community, through many lanes. So, it might start at dance and that's the thing that all drawed us in to be this band or this family. So throughout that we noticed it's other ways to push and talk to other subjects and areas, with the same art form, the same sense of community. So, in a sense, it's just like pushing this art form to the end, to the end, throughout fashion, throughout music, throughout film. But the root of it is Chicago footwork, which was a dance that originated on the South side, no the West side of Chicago in the late 80s or early 80s, late 80s into the 90s and so on and so forth.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Fabulous. That. So perfect. I don't know, Chief Manny, did you want to add anything?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: Um, yeah, I think the way we like to approach dance and community in this collective fashion, gives us kind of like an opportunity to learn from one another differently, in each other's respected areas. And to think about how we are approaching it differently. So, when we talk about dance and film, I'm approaching it from a film perspective. So, if it's a choreography or I have an understanding of like, how to approach the best way to communicate the dance. Same thing with Steelo with fashion. If it is, you know, if like, cause sometimes dancers go to and get their costumes made from other folks, but from somebody that got like a better understanding, a deeper understanding of just fashion in general to the public, but also what we'll be comfortable with wearing, I think it adds and pushes, pushes both, both areas of what we're doing and then being able to all give feedback and all have opinions and ideas about what it is we're doing. Sorry about the P words (Bolingbroke: laughs). Opinions and ideas (laughs). And yeah, I think it just pushes, pushes what we're doing.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Well, and how interwoven that, that it isn't just the art form of dance, but it welcomes so many other genres and platforms, and that, that you have operated collectively to, you know, that it's not just a dance show. It is multimedia on many different fronts. From the dance perspective, though, I'm really curious since you do this work in community, often in streets and neighborhoods, and we'll say unconventional spaces relative to how a lot of people begin their dance training. Do you recall a moment or a specific point where you really started to own the term choreographers?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: I think during the journey and even still now, it's hard to say because at a point where I thought we were choreographing it, understanding, I can look back at that show and be like, okay, we came a long way in terms of understanding what a complete show is like (Bolingbroke: Hmm). So, we've always choreographed our routines and dance moves. But when it comes to like putting on an entire show or production, I think it's still kind of like a long journey, but I would say something that really pushed us to the next level was being able to go away to Martha's Vineyard for two weeks (Bolingbroke: Hmm) and be together for that amount of time, dancing, learning, I think that kind of pushed us to another, another plateau or another level of how we approach our choreography.
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: Umm. Yeah, I totally agree with that. Because like you said, we look back and it's like, okay, that's not it. And then we break into these other environments and we got to do stage shows at museums or black, black box spaces. It's like, okay, we get another chance to layer footwork or break it up in a sense to make, to help people understand it. Because one thing we've been told is like, we give them a lot, a lot. So just learning the process of what we can do and what we can't do. And I don't feel like it's nothing we can't do. So, it's like, I, yeah, it's a consistent learning or yes, it's just a learning journey.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: It sounds almost like as interwoven as fashion and film and community education and dance and music is to what The Era Footwork Collective that to focus on the choreography is from a place of maybe craft and sort of distilling or deconstructing to say like, okay, we're just gonna focus on the dance. Let's consider the venue. Is it a black box? Is it a playground? Is it for the film? Because that is its own sort of framework and space. I think that audiences and other dancers would be really curious to hear what inspires you. How do you all start a project?
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: Um it's all like natural. It's all organic. Um and it might, even from stage show pieces to music, is something we've gone through, or something we've going through, or something we wanna express (Bolingbroke: Hmm). And typically footwork music has been not suitable for the, the untrained ear, if you would. But we flipped, flipped it in a way so. We flipped it into a way where, you know what I'm saying, if you just riding in a car or anybody who can just digest, you know what I'm saying (Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm), lyrics over a track can kind of get where we coming from, get our story. But yeah, I think, I forgot the question. What was the question?
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Where do you start? (Lofton: Where do we start? Um) Yeah, I'm curious. Yeah, and if you start altogether or is there typically one of you that says, I've got an idea and then you build it out in your different platforms?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: No, yeah, I mean, we can start a lot of different ways. So, one way we just released the music video, “We Gone Step.” So, I think that was something that was music led first. It wasn't necessarily video or choreography thought, led (Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm), but it was turned into a stage show that I feel like the music drove in terms of when it's a music led thing first. But we also have things like a “Footwork Saves Lives” shirt that would inspire a certain event or a certain way of how we approach involving kids (Bolingbroke: Hmm). So like that's something that's more, you know, fashion-led. Same thing with film and dance. Like Steelo or Bulb, or one of us might come with a move. And now we want to experiment and make up a whole routine of choreography around that move. Um and then I think once we get all these components together and all these kind of expressive pieces out, they then formulate into this longer piece or like this bigger idea of how we are doing, all the things we're doing, or what exactly are we doing. And I think we always try to put them, put them together or keep them, keep them together so that you can see how they all like complement each other. So if it is an event, “Footwork Saves Lives,” shirts are, you know, kind of like a highlight of them. Now we are having kids perform and we're thinking about teaching kids and, you know, it's, it's all kind of coming together, I think in terms of some things leading the way first (Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm), whatever that may be, but then it all kind of comes back together to one thing, if that makes sense.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Yeah, I mean, it's, we've talked about this a little bit, that it is a life, not just a lifestyle. And so sometimes you, you don't know where you're going to begin. And what I'm also hearing is that a lot of it is in response to the context or the environment. If you are working with the kids, or if you have an idea that you don't have to wait to work on a film because you're like, great, we can start here. Instead of saying, well, we make the stage show first and then we make a film afterwards. There are these sort of conditioned, you know, habits, right? Certainly, music artists have that, too, when they can release a single versus a music video. So it sounds that you've found ways, because of the pluralism, the collective identity of all of you that you can start from a lot of different places, which is really cool. Can you talk a little bit more about Footworking music? Cause I think others might not be aware if you, or do you always make your own music? Are you licensing it from other people? And if people haven't heard Footworking music before, maybe didn't know they were listening to Footworking music, how would you talk to them about it?
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: Footwork music, it's an evolution. You know, I would say from house music or ghetto house (Bolingbroke: Hmm). But it's 160 BPM and it's made for dance and it's made for footwork. I would say it has its stories just like any other genre. You have the people who played their parts to keep it pushing or to change it in certain ways (Bolingbroke: Hmm). DJ Spinn, RP Boo, DJ Clent, and you have their forefathers before them. But I think I would just describe it as, as. I can't describe it verbally right now but...
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: That's why we dance it out, right? (laughs)
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: And I, And I have a little thing that for me, like, for one, I think Footwork music is an energy. So, you can feel it when you hear it. And some of the things that I feel like Footwork music highlight are like, you know, toms or heavy bass or 808s (Bolingbroke: Hmm). A lot of hi-hats, it's electronic music. So, it is a high energy dance, you know, like Steelo said, it's at 160 BPM. So, it's a really fast pace. Um but, but it's beyond just the dance, like I said, it's an energy. So, people party to it and don't footwork at all (Bolingbroke: Hmm). People can listen to it now, just, you know, and hear, hear some of the ways that now we are telling our stories on it. And most of the times, we, we work directly with DJ Spinn, who produces all of the music we make. And it is, it is heavily sampled as well. So, from funny lines to, (Lofton: Movie) yeah, movie lines, to soul music, to rock music, to just about anything jazz, in terms of it being sampled or inspired on, inspired by. Yeah, and it's, it’s definitely something that's different when you hear it. And yeah, I think, I think it's an energy that's, that’s felt. Um.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: The sampling component is really interesting to, it's like another layer of context. That's what's coming up in our conversation today. Almost like these cultural touchstones. Like it, you know, you don't win anything if you can name where that line was sampled from, but it is sort of speaking to the larger world, that the dancer, the listener, the person who's grooving at the party may also feel a connection to. That it doesn't exist just in this rarefied space of performance. So, I love that little Easter egg. I'm going to listen differently for sure. And I'm curious then, I mean, 160 beats per minute. And I, you know, also tried by myself, like in the back corner when y'all were teaching, because it, it requires at the same time tons of concentration and the ability to let go, that speaking from my own experience (Calhoun: Mm-hmm). So, I'm really curious, how do y'all identify dancers? What do you look for in other dancers or collaborators that might perform with you?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: Um, I think one is, is not really like, uh, necessarily looking for the dancers, but I think, um, you know, it's just a certain, um, like for people to be themselves, like authentically (Bolingbroke: Hmm) themselves and, um, really just, um, understanding that it's, it's not to be a sort to do, you know, it's like, okay, what do you do? Like how, how are you viewing this? Um, even people that we teach in workshops is like, it's not about being fast. It's not about looking exactly like me. It's not about looking the same. It's about, you know, your unique style and how you add into that and how are you learning, how you learning the basics of Footwork, but, you know, adding your own style of flavor, or like, we always like to say swag (Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm) when you dance. Like you gotta have your own swag (laughs). And but, you know, once, once you dance around people for so long, y'all can have similar swag, but still different styles in terms of how y'all are dancing (Bolingbroke: Hmm). And I think, you know, being together that long, you can see some of that on the floor. But, you know, for others, it's like, whatever your uniqueness is, let that be the main thing that, that you highlight within it. Just learn the foundation. And yeah, you'll develop over time.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Cool. One of the questions that I think all dance makers struggle with to varying degrees, but that, that comes up is how do you name a dance? Right? Like, it's almost like naming a child. And sometimes, especially if you're writing a grant or something, you haven't made the dance yet. So, it seems like something that a lot of people struggle with. Do y'all have a process or can reflect it all? Like how do you name things that the Era makes?
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: Um, pieces, kind of like pieces or bodies of work kind of name their self with us (Bolingbroke: Hmm). Um, another layer of that, that we do go through is like naming individual moves or steps that we make up. Because with Footwork and it's like what Manny said, it's got this base and it's like, it's base, um, base basics, if you will. And, um, it's like, how do you, how do you elevate those after mastering them (Bolingbroke: Hmm). Not before. you have to master these steps, these erk n'jerks, these skates, shake and bakes, ghosts. You master these steps, literally master them. I mean, like you continue to work, but then you get, you get that swag to where you can bend and manipulate the move in a way somebody else wouldn't see it. So, uh, I'm getting lost again, but uh, yeah (Bolingbroke No. You’re..). How do you name it. It’s, it’s, with us, it's playful, it's loose. Um, and then if it makes sense, it makes sense. Um, that's all I could say.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I wanna unpack a little bit more of the swag of the making it your own as well as the basics. Cause I think that's one of the other questions that comes up for, in higher education, in any dance studio, where, where does dance begin? Like some people are, are lucky that their first, invitation to dance may be footworking in the neighborhood. Some people, they might go to a ballet class or a jazz class or a tap class. And so one of the things between this idea of like old and new vocabulary, I'm curious, when do you give yourselves permission to repeat something that you already did in the last piece? And then how often do you push yourselves to find new steps, new ways of working, especially after that, that spirit of mastery that you were talking about, Steelo? Like, what is that balance between old and new?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: I think we definitely push each other in all of those areas. So it's, it’s, you know, it’s a moment right now that Bulb is in what, of course he's mastered all the stuff, but he just relearning it and just like (Bolingbroke: Hmm), rediscovering how to do it and like, Yo, we never did it like this. So like, if we add this extra pop in it, it make it look a little different and it might sell it a little better. So, it's, it’s really just always, always, I'll probably still be going back to the people that's my teachers. Like you can never stop learning the same thing and you'll see it differently. Or you in a different space, so now you remember it, you know, it’s, it's a whole different experience with it as the years go, go on. So, I don't think it's, you know, of course we master it, but once, once you still go back to the basics, you gonna rediscover something else that you may have missed (Bolingbroke: Hmm), especially since I think a lot of this is not formalized in terms of a technique specifically (Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm). Uh so people do different moves differently because it's no formal, you know, thing. Only from people that are the creators of some of these moves, you know, those are the folks that we can go to and say this is the formal way of doing it. But when I teach you skates versus Steelo teaching you skates versus Bulb teaching you skates. It's the same move, but um it's, it’s always going to be something a little, a little different. Um different about it, I guess (Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm) that I think is always good to um. Like it's always going to push, push what you know. It's always going to push uh how you do it differently or think about doing it differently.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Uh for our listeners, that Chief Manny is referencing fellow Era Collective member Jamal “Litebulb” Oliver uhh who wasn't able to join us today, but glad that we could name him in spirit. And what I wanted to reflect on all that you just shared was this, this idea that, that even with the sense of you becoming a mastery of, of a move, of a step, of making it your own swag, it sounds like there's also an inherent sort of beginner mindset, that curiosity to stay open when you're, whether it's because you're seeing how someone else teaches a move or you're working with some kids or something that would teach you something else about how you work. And then you're like, oh, wait a minute, I'm going to reconsider everything I thought I'd mastered. And that keeps it fresh for you too. Does that sound apt?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: I mean, yeah, I mean, it's, it’s also just uh like being some of the first dancers to age in Footwork in terms of (Bolingbroke: Hmm) professionalism or performing. The way I look when I was 15 and the way I move is completely different. Um and yeah, it's never just really been like a guide, I guess, essentially for when you get 30 or when you get like 40 (Bolingbroke: Yeah) and you all still performing like we're gonna have to do the moves differently (everyone laughs). Like we're gonna have to think about how to do it differently. And, you know, that's the space where it's like, okay, you gotta keep going back to the basics or you gotta keep relearning or reinventing yourself because it’s, you have to keep like, learning, you have to keep growing. Even if you mastered it, now how do you master it at 45 and continue to move the way that feels consistent enough with the dance or, um yeah, just, just never, never thinking that, that's it because you're gonna always have to reinvent yourself.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Yes, I love you naming that, that you're also part of a generation, the first to age through Footwork too. That's so important. Um one more, you know, two more questions. One, I think that speaks not only to dance makers, but anyone who has tried to be creative, who makes that an effort, whether it's, you know, writing a story, facing the blank page, you know, or starting from scratch on a new dance work or project. Sometimes we have other deadlines, so we know we have to get there and get it done. You know, we, we said we were going to premiere it on a certain day, or we have to turn it in by a certain time, but you're not feeling it, right? You know, like the creativity isn't coming or the motivation isn't coming. Can you identify with that at all? Is there anything that you do for yourselves or together as a collective to get out of a rut, to find that freshness again?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: Um. I could, I could speak for myself first. Um so I know that's definitely happened to me um personally. Um and working through a deadline specifically and it being something, and if it's not like the thing I'm most proud of, I know I just got to revisit that work (Bolingbroke: Hmm). That's for when it's a deadline. But it's times where there's no deadline (laughs), and I'm just like in no man's land. Um.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: (Laughs) That's a good way to describe it. Yeah, especially because we are so trained, I think, as a society to meet deadlines, to, to meet that finish line. And so there can be so much freedom without them, but you could also sort of languish in no man's land (laughs).
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you, you could drift off that for a while, but if you put so much into it, you know that you will never be able to let it go. So you got to kind of complete it (Bolingbroke: Hmm). And you're just going to be in that phase until you complete it in your life. So, it's like, that's a chapter in your life that you got to completely get through, not just within the craft, but within what you're going through in real life. And then you will be able to move forward. It's how I feel in terms of whatever project, you know, you're on, you can't complete it because it's something in life, you know, that's throwing you off balance where you can't get it. So, until you get it right in totality, and you could be in that space for 10 years, you know. It happens to artists all the time who like make an album or a project and they just like can't get through it. Um it's a real thing um. It's just a matter of, you know, like the timing, uh what's going on in your life, how you balancing that, so that you can push out that creativity um. Because yeah, I mean, yeah, some, some yeah, it's, it’s, it could be..(laughs)
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: That's the humanness too, right? What do you think Steelo? Have you had to face a creative rut and press on?
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: For sure, for sure. Um. All facts dropped by Chief Manny (Bolingbroke laughs). All facts. Um but I think one of the things that helped me is just having this band of brothers around or this team around (Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm) that I could bounce ideas off of or they're going to come to me and bounce an idea and it's like, all right, it's going to spark something else. Um so yeah, that's something that helped me but he dropped all the facts for sure. And it's, it’s the team, it's the people you have around and, and believe in.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Mmm. I love that reminder also of the team. In my opinion and lived perspective, I think most 20th century celebrated dance makers and companies were a very single choreographer company model. And there were collectives then, but they were few and far between. And I think that's one of the many reasons that excites me about the era and the work that you're doing now is not only the work, but it's a different way of working and that sense of community when the deadlines aren't coming or the creative muses aren't speaking and that you can say, oh wait, I'm not alone and riff off of each other and find an alternative way forward. It's very exciting.
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: Yeah. For sure, for sure.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: I've got one more question. I am curious since you are aging through Footwork or growing up, I'm curious about what's the best piece of advice that you have received and or would want to pass on to anyone who is trying to carve out their own creative life.
STERLING “STEELO” LOFTON: Um, I think I got a couple things. Uh, the first one would be the work never stops. Working at, what the work never ends, like it's always (Bolingbroke: Facts) some work to be done on yourself, on your craft. Um, and secondly, um, noticing the space you in at that present moment (Bolingbroke: Hmm). Um, it might not be at the very bottom. It might be at the middle. It might be at the top, but, uh, just being in that moment, realizing what's what, realizing you might have manifested exactly what you needed right in that time, but you're still looking forward or looking backwards so you don't really notice it. So one, the work never stops and like be present in the time and the space and the levels that you're at to get through.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Thank you, Steelo. Anything to add, Manny?
BRANDON “CHIEF MANNY” CALHOUN: Um, no, definitely just to echo what Steelo said, um, especially in terms of being present, um, just recognizing that that's what you had in life within your story, um, you know, and it's up to you to move forward or not in this moment. Um, because that's the only thing that's yeah, that's, that's going, um. Like that's the only thing that's going to keep you grounded in like where you at. Um, you could, you would know about the decisions you're making if, if that's who you are in this moment, what you see yourself to be. So if that's the things you're not doing, then it's like uh being aware of that um in this moment.
CHRISTY BOLINGBROKE: Love that. Thank both of you for being present and taking a moment to pause and share your experiences and perspective with me and with NCCAkron audiences. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Have a great day!
OUTRODUCTION: Inside The Dancer’s Studio Conversation Series is supported by NCCAkron, the University of Akron, the University of Akron Foundation, the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts, and Audio-Technica, a global audio manufacturer with U.S. headquarters in Northeast Ohio. Our podcast program is produced by Jennifer Edwards. James Sleeman is our editor, transcription by Arushi Singh. Theme music by Floco Torres, cover art by Micah Kraus. Special thanks to Laura Ellacott, Sarah Durham, and Will Blake. To learn more about NCCAkron, please visit us online at NCCakron.org. And follow us on Instagram or Facebook at NCCAkron. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platform by searching for Inside The Dancer’s Studio. Please share with your friends and if you’d like to help get the word out rate us, and leave a review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening and stay curious.