The term "house music" is said to have originated from a Chicago club called the official name was "US Studio," dancers started calling the club "The Warehouse"  which existed from 1977 to 1983. Clubbers to The Warehouse were primarily black, who came to dance to music played by the club's resident DJ Frankie Knuckles, whom fans refer to as the "godfather of house". Frankie began the house trend by splicing together different records when he found that the records he had weren't enough to satisfy his audience. He would use tape and a knife to accomplish this. After the Warehouse closed in 1983, the crowds went to Knuckles' new club, The Power Plant. In the Channel 4 documentary Pump Up The Volume, Knuckles remarks that the first time he heard the term "house music" was upon seeing "we play house music" on a sign in the window of a bar on Chicago's South Side. One of the people in the car with him joked, "you know, that's the kind of music you play down at the Warehouse!", and then everybody laughed. South-Side Chicago DJ Leonard "Remix" Roy, in self-published statements, claims he put such a sign in a tavern window because it was where he played music that one might find in one's home; in his case, it referred to his mother's soul & disco records, which he worked into his sets. Farley Jackmaster Funk was quoted as saying "In 1982, I was DJing at a club called The Playground and there was this kid named Leonard 'Remix' Roy who was a DJ at a rival club called The Rink. He came over to my club one night, and into the DJ booth and said to me, 'I've got the gimmick that's gonna take all the people out of your club and into mine – it's called House music.' Now, where he got that name from or what made him think of it I don't know, so the answer lies with him."

​

House was the first direct descendant of disco. In comparison with disco, House was "deeper", "rawer", and more designed to make people dance. Disco had already produced the first records to be aimed specifically at DJs with extended 12" versions that included long percussion breaks for mixing purposes. The early 80s proved a vital turning point. Sinnamon’s "Thanks To You", D-Train’s "You're The One For Me", and The Peech Boys "Don’t Make Me Wait", a record that has been continually sampled over the last decade, took things in a different direction with their sparse, synthesised sounds that introduced dub effects and drop-outs that had never been heard before.

 

 It is also an umbrella term that represents all the different dances that are incorporated with house music and club dancing. The groove in house is generally referred to as the “Jack”. It was the groove that came from the warehouse parties in Chicago. It wasn’t necessarily a style or a move. Once House hit the New York area, it collided with Hip-Hop and formed house dance foundation as we see it today.

Between 1977 and 1987, the Paradise Garage was one of the most important and influential clubs in New York City with a devoted patronage comprised of sexual and ethnic minorities (primarily African-American gay men).

With resident DJ Larry Levan and other DJs as the center of attention, it influenced dance, music, and culture both nationally and internationally as the birthplace of the modern nightclub.

Paradise Garage was a semi-underground club focused solely on music and dance. Unlike many other clubs at the time, it was membership only – not open to the general public. Moreover, it did not discriminate among its membership based on race, class, or sexual identity.

 

 

 

HOUSE DANCE ( a.k.a. " Clubbing"): a dance style that emerged and evolved from a movement in NYC in the mid-80s called, " CLUBBING".

House Dance is an amalgamation of the post-disco era. A lot of their movements and what took place in certain key places, the Jack and a number of clubs after that. It was a community based dance so vocal points were surrounded by music and DJs, but many of the dancers who were not looking to create, ended up becoming a part of that dance vocabulary."

The major source in house dance movement stems directly from the music and the elements within the music such as jazz, African, Latin, soul, R&B, funk, hip hop, etc. The other source is the people, the individuals and their characteristics, ethnicities, origin, etc.Various African Dances as well as Samba/Salsa steps were also incorporated into house and evolved into moves called Stomps, Farmers, Swirls, etc. Much of the footwork we see today also derive from some tap and hip-hop, but with a different feel when they were brought into house. Lofting is also a dance style done to house at the time, involving more graceful movements, spins, and ground work.

 

You have people of all walks of life partying under one roof. Thus you have exchanges of information (body language) house dance is a social dance before these competitions.

In house dancing, there is an emphasis on the subtle rhythms and riffs of the music, and the footwork follows them closely.

In the early progressions of the dance, there were hundreds of phenomenal dancers that were key in its progression in this social dance scene. However, out of the many there were few instrumental in the introduction of New York house dance culture across the globe. Some of these dancers are Ejoe Wilson, Brian "Footwork" Green, Tony McGregor, Marjory Smarth, Caleaf Sellers, "Brooklyn" Terry Wright, Kim D. Holmes, Shannon Mabra, Tony "Sekou" Williams, Shannon Selby (aka Shan S), Voodoo Ray, and others.

​

​