The History of the UK House Dance Scene: A new documentary shedding light on house dance culture

A new Mixmag documentary shares an inside look into the roots of house dance and where the style has reached in the modern day.

Titled JACK UNION: The History of the UK House Dance Scene this all-new documentary, directed by Chiara Romualdi, explores the origins of this freestyle street dance, from its American beginnings in the underground clubs of Chicago and New York, up to its breakthrough in the UK which continues to spread this legacy.

In this dance form, people can embrace physical and emotional freedom, moving themselves to the rhythm of house music and more bass-heavy dance music. Typically broken up into three main movement approaches – jacking, footwork, and lofting – the style was built by queer and Black Americans as a form of expression and escapism from the pressures of everyday life.

American clubbers pushed forth the style to become a widely recognised movement that travelled from the US to France before spreading across the UK and successively to the globe. Early UK house dancers incorporated moves such as cutting shapes, skanking and shuffling before being influenced by the American style of dancing, expanding later on to the hybrid approach we see today.