As a kid, Michael Manson Jr. danced in his bedroom, trying to imitate Michael Jacksonβs moves, or Usherβs.
βMy mom would put me on punishment,β he says. βThat would be OK because I had a radio in there.β
When his mother realized her punishments werenβt going very far, she took away his radio.
βI was still in there dancing,β he says. He danced in silence. βDancing,β he says, βis the heartbeat of my soul.β
The founder and director of the Detroit-based dance collective , Manson is known nationwide as one of only a handful of people who dance and teach Detroit jit, a style of dance started on the streets of Detroit in the 1970s that blends aspects of jazz, tap, modern, and African dance to produce something entirely unique and native to the city.
While Manson describes house dance as a more community-centered, βearthy, vibe-ish thing,β Detroit jit βcan be that, but itβs aggressive, itβs gritty, itβs spiritual, β¦ so youβve gotta tap in β you canβt do it soft. β¦ Jit is not a happy dance. Itβs a street style.β When he dances, Manson adds, βIβm just a representation of what the city went through while creating it. Jit is a part of our culture in Detroit. β¦ Itβs in our DNA.β
In February, Manson got a big boost in making sure all Detroiters have access to learning about this style of dance when House of Jit was awarded a $150,000 grant by , an initiative that supports BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) artists in Detroit. Launched by the and , the initiative aims to help the artists grow their practices into sustainable businesses in Detroit neighborhoods by providing them with technical assistance, capital, and more.
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Manson is no stranger to prizes. In 2020 β five years after he was featured on So You Think You Can Dance β he was awarded a . It came with a $25,000 no-strings- attached grant and one year of professional development support. That support helped to demystify the grant application process, Manson says. Up until that point, βthe grant world was like a secret society.β He has a nice metaphor to describe all this: βKresge,β Manson says, βwas the foundation [for House of Jit].β
Since other dancers associated with Mansonβs collective werenβt as knowledgeable about the grant application process, Manson was able to share what he learned during his Kresge fellowship with them.
βI just want to pour into the community,β Manson says β a generosity he shares not only with House of Jit dancers but also with Detroit-area kids, whom he frequently mentors through and the and other locations on Detroitβs west side.
βInstead of following the trends on TikTok,β Manson says, β[I want to] show these kids that their state β their city β created a style that they can keep pushing.β
Manson says his larger goal is βto showcase jit, to spread the knowledge, and to share the culture, share the music, so jit wonβt die off when weβre done.β
As far as the Seed and Bloom grant, Manson says the bulk of the award will go toward regular business expenses β things like dancersβ pay, rehearsal spaces, and branded clothing.
But in the long term, Manson has his sights set on a community facility dedicated to health and wellness. Dance would be offered but wouldnβt necessarily be the focus; the βbigger picture,β he says, would involve educating visitors about their physical and mental health.
Jit, Manson says, is βgenerational. I know that Iβm not only dancing for myself; Iβm dancing for those before me. These arenβt moves that I created β itβs just passed down. And some of the things that I think I created, I find out that I didnβt. It shows me that Iβm just holding on to the torch until someone else can, [or] I can pass it to someone else. And to be honest, I have.β
Ultimately, Manson says heβd also like to write a book about Detroit jit that would describe the culture surrounding it as well as βthe music, the movement, and dance.β The book βwill break down where jit began, where it evolved, and where it ends. And Iβll put βdot, dot, dot, dot,β because itβs not going to end. Itβs going to keep creating [and] recreating itself, like everything up under the sun does.β
This story originally appeared in the June 2024 issue of ΒιΆΉ·¬ΊΕ Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of ΒιΆΉ·¬ΊΕ Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on June 6.
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