If there’s a single week out of the year to get your groove on, this is it. National Dance Week celebrates all things dance with free dance classes, lectures, workshops, open rehearsals and performances. Take your first dance class, try a new dance style… or check out that dance company you’ve been reading so much about. It’s a celebration of dance for both dancers and non-dancers alike.
Listings of happenings across the country are available on the National Dance Week website. Search by state to see what is happening near you. Regional festivals, such as the (San Francisco) Bay Area National Dance Week, have become popular offshoots of the week to dance yourself silly. This year BANDW is expecting its biggest turn-out to date, with over 400 different events offered. The festival kicks off with a public dance-off known as One Dance in Union Square on Friday, April 22nd. One Dance features dance groups and schools from a wide array of dance styles – all performing in their own style to the same piece of music and then coming together, in unison for a final dance performance. Last year’s turnout was 700 plus dancers. The 10-day event will conclude with a pre-choreographed public dance party, and all downtown visitors, shoppers, office workers, dancers and non-dancers are invited to participate. For anyone interested in learning the moves, check out the instructional video on the BANDW home page.
The Bay Area is said to be the largest per capita center for dance in the US, and the BNDW’s festivities have been the most extensive and best attended celebrations in the country since its inception. This year’s festival is presented by the Dancers’ Group, the Bay Area’s dance service organization. They support the second largest dance community in the nation by providing many programs and resources that help artists produce work, build audiences, and connect with their peers and community through artist dialogue, presentation of site-specific work, and promotion of free public performance.
National National Dance Week was founded in 1981 to increase awareness of dance and its contributions to our national culture… or, as their tag line says, “to celebrate the benefits and beauty of dance and its ability to enrich our lives, our bodies, our spirits and our culture.
Bay Area National Dance Week
http://www.bayareandw.org/
National Dance Week
http://www.nationaldanceweek.org/
Dancer’s Group
www.dancersgroup.org
View One Dance 2010:
