Arts & Entertainment

Litefeet Dancers Part of Hip-hop Lineage

By Grace Oladunni

Staff writer

“Clap your hands, clap your hands … ” Those lyrics were thumping hard out of a loud speaker.

A solo dancer, encircled by a crowd of other dancers, was showing off his new skills. He wasn’t this good when he started out doing Litefeet, one of the latest forms of hip-hop dancing, with roots in breakdancing and pop-locking. It’s very improvisational.

“Wooooooooooo” several people screamed, at once, while that soloist, who goes by his performance name, Kev, was showing off.

Kev had made some major improvement since he started out in Litefeet.

“That was definitely progress,” said Scientist, a co-coordinator of that Saturday night’s combination of solo performances and dance battles, as he watched Kev.

Litefeet isn’t just done in places like the Murphy Community Center in the West Bronx, as it was that night. Born in Harlem in the early 2000s, it’s also taught in dance studios across the United States and such international cities as London and Tokyo. Dances including the Harlem Shake, Chicken Noodle Soup, Tone Wop, The Bad One and Aunt Jackie have been incorporated into litefeet movements, which also includes hat tricks, shoe tricks, shirt tricks, elaborate footwork, shuffling and acrobatics.

“We put our literal all into this dance style, and that’s why I fell in love,” Scientist said.

He was in a room filled with younger and older dancers, experienced and less experienced ones. Dancers kept coming. The temperatures inside the un-air conditioned community center kept rising. Somebody flung the doors open. The dancers—sweating, laughing, talking, cheering whomever was in the center of things—didn’t stop, except when someone jumped on the mic: “Who wants to battle? … Who wants to solo? … ”

One of the oldest in the room was Bre Hall, another event coordinator. She’d tried litefeet dancing but wasn’t good at it. She gave it up but, for several reasons, loves being in an audience of litefeet lovers. “It’s amazing that people of color were able to create something so innovative,” she said, adding that she’s now a “professional spectator.” She goes to as many of these gatherings that she can fit on her calendar.

Several fans of this dance said their main reason for “getting lite” was simple. “Litefeet is the highest form of fun,” Elijah “E Solo” Soto said. “It’s the same way somebody might feel going on a rollercoaster or somebody playing a video game or buying new sneakers.”

“Wherever there’s life there’s litefeet,” Sean “Arnstar” Kirkland, who’s been featured on Netflix and prime time TV, told this reporter.

Litefeet, he added, is driven be the idea that anyone can practice what, to him, is an art form.

“Anything you put your mind to, you can do,” Kirkland said. “you are who you are looking for—and you only.”