Circle Up Summer Camp

The Era hosts free Footwork Summer Camps

Circle Up is The Era's footwork summer camp, operating on the south and east sides of Chicago and offered to more than 100 youth dancers at no charge.

[photos from camp]

Dancers learn to footwork as they explore dance history, video-making, costume design and DJing with top Chicago artists. Circle Up also includes performance opportunities for youth at "Dance Downs in the Park," hosted in collaboration with the Chicago Park District, and at the Annual Chicago House Music Festival in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Affairs.

[more photos or video from Dance Downs]

Open the Circle, an early nonprofit formed by the Era, was founded as a solution to Chicago’s power imbalances, an attempt to redirect resources toward artists and children in underserved communities.

The organization focused efforts to produce a documentary film, a stage show, and footwork summer camps—all intended to tell the story of footwork, to grow the community, and to pass footwork along to the next generation. For Litebulb, Open the Circle’s summer camps maintain the tradition of footwork in Chicago. “In a sense, that’s the essence of it,” he says, “passing it to kids because we were kids when we got it.”

Early Circle Up camps were coordinated with on-the-ground leadership from dance groups Bringing Out Talent and The Era.