Photo Courtesy of Artist
beat ya feet dance
Washington, D.C.
Beat Ya Feet Academy (BYFA) is a powerhouse organization that focuses on “Engaging, Educating, and Empowering” youth and adults through “beat ya feet,” D.C.’s distinctive street dance culture. Under the direction of John “Crazy Legz” Pearson III and Porche’ “Queen P” Anthony, BYFA brings an intergenerational team of youth and community dancers to rep this dance that Queen P describes as “an expression of freedom with a lot of bounce.”
Beat ya feet is the dance manifestation of go-go music, the soundtrack to life in “the DMV.” Go-go is a highly syncopated, percussive, and regionally rooted offshoot of funk that emerged in D.C. in the early 1970s. It combines elements of R&B, gospel, hip hop, jazz, African and Latin-derived rhythms, and call-and-response vocals—all layered over a signature percussion pattern. Go-go thrives on marathon performances, bootlegged recordings of live sets, and the fanatical loyalty of its local fans.
Dance has gone hand in hand with go-go music from the beginning, but the specific form known as beat ya feet exploded on the scene during go-go’s “breakdown era,” associated most closely with the music of the Backyard Band. A young Southeast D.C. native, Marvin “Slush” Gross is credited with popularizing the new dance style in clubs and on sidewalks in the late 1990s. While the style has set moves that every dancer learns, beat ya feet celebrates individual expression within the form.
Beat Ya Feet Academy carries the dance and its culture into the future under the direction of Queen P and Crazy Legz. Queen P describes herself as a “first generation” dancer; she has danced with some of go-go’s biggest bands, including a previous Richmond Folk Festival appearance with go-go legends Rare Essence, and she gained nationwide popularity as the sole female member of Beat Ya Feet Kings when they competed in Season 4 of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. Crazy Legz started dancing as a kid but made his name as a breakout star of the second generation of beat ya feet; he’s known for unique moves that have become iconic in the community and for pioneering the genre’s dance battles. Crazy Legz has taught internationally, choreographed beat ya feet for the Washington Commanders dance team, and has been a spokesperson for the form in national forums like PBS’s If Cities Could Dance series.
Queen P says that, like go-go, beat ya feet tends to evolve every decade, and BYFA’s presentations in Richmond will bring the audience on a journey through the vibrant history of the form, which is now on the cusp of a new era. In 2020, following the activism of #DontMuteDC, a grassroots movement addressing the cultural impacts of gentrification, go-go was recognized as D.C.’s official music genre; at the same time, beat ya feat went global—it has been taught in Africa, Europe, South America, and India, bringing people worldwide to go-go through the joy of this dance rooted in the culture of the DMV.