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Music

Inside the Schools and Dance Battles Fueling Japan's Footwork Scene

In our new documentary, we head to Tokyo, where dancers and producers young and old have embraced the frenetic Chicago sound.

Thousands of miles away from its Chicago home, the frenetic joy of footwork has become the expression of choice for a group of Japanese dancers and DJs. As they've dug deep the Windy City's highest energy musical export, they've crafted their own unique scene of dance battles and kick-drum pitter-patters, centered around a small contingent of super-competitive dancers.

THUMP took a trip to Tokyo last year to catch up with a handful of the artists and dancers bringing the breakneck pace and soulful sounds at the heart of the genre into new cultural contexts. With detours through dance battles and peeks into the schools teaching a new generation of dancers the fleet-footed style, it's an intimate look at how an intercontinental exchange of ideas sparked an artistic community half a world away. Watch it here in full.