Detroit, Chicago and Philly street dancing represented in Rennie Harris’ new performance

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For his first new choreography in three years, Rennie Harris is reaching way back.

The 62-year-old dancer and choreographer grew up in North Philadelphia, where at age 14 he started The Step Masters, his first street dance crew, which danced a style unique to Philadelphia called GQ.

“American Street Dancer,” Harris’ show this weekend at Penn Live Arts, brings together dance styles that evolved in different cities side by side.

The show demonstrates Detroit Jit, Chicago stepping and Philly GQ as performed by three crews from those cities: House of Jit in Detroit, Creation Global from Chicago and Rennie Harris’ own Puremovement.

More than a demonstration of geographical dance styles, Harris’ show is an attempt to investigate why we dance the way we dance.

“You have to study what was happening politically, economically and socially in that era,” Harris said. “It is a part of the culture. What we call building, meaning building physically, mentally, spiritually, the whole nine, that happens all the time within street dance culture.”

Harris, himself, does not dance GQ on stage, but he still knows how.

“It was an idea that I had about rhythms being transferred from one generation to the next generation,” he said. “Then realizing that those rhythms were really held by tappers. Tappers hold those rhythms from enslavement.”

“American Street Dancer” draws from a well of Black dance that stretches well before Harris’ own beginning almost 50 years ago. The legacy of tap dancing can be traced from William Henry Lane, also known as Master Juba, one of the first Black performers to play for white audiences in the 1840s, to the Nicholas Brothers, who dazzled early motion pictures in the 1940s, to Harris’ era, when tap merged with hip-hop.

“Those rhythms transfer over to my generation, and then now the next generation has those rhythms,” Harris said.

“American Street Dancer” lets each of the three styles shine on their own. Harris brings some theatrical flair to the production, while ultimately creating space for the three crews from three cities to largely freestyle.

The staging is set up in a cypher, or a typical street dance arrangement of a circle of people taking turns moving into the center to show off their moves. They are accompanied by a live DJ, bucket drummers and beatbox vocal percussion.

“That cypher is like the ring shout. Like drumming up those rhythms that are bringing up that spirit, that thing that allows you to go to the next level,” Harris said. “Meaning spiritually. Often people don’t realize that this is the moment that you are able to talk with a higher source, when you’re able to just let your body go, and just go.”

“American Street Dancer” will premiere at Penn Live Arts on Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15.