simultaneously around the world


Dance anywhere celebrates with free shows

Dance anywhere celebrates with free shows all over S.F.

Updated 7:05 am, Wednesday, March 26, 2014

 Free dance performances are scheduled at venues all over San Francisco at noon Friday.

  • Dance anywhere participant Antoine Hunter shows off his moves.
    Photo: Weidong Yang

Free dance performances are scheduled at venues all over San Francisco at noon Friday.

 by Mary Ellen Hunt

Why draw lines between art and life? On Friday, let dance creep into your everyday life and join the rest of the world in the 10th annual “dance anywhere” celebrations. You can watch free performances in venues all over San Francisco, get your office mates to froog in their cubicles, or just celebrate quietly on your own with a little jig as you wait in line at the grocery store.

Organizer Beth Fein sees the global “dance anywhere” movement – events are scheduled at noon in San Francisco, and simultaneously as far off as Cozumel, Budapest, Cairo and Tel Aviv – as not just a kind of public art performance and a way to inject some fun into life, but also a spark for creativity. One participant recorded herself doing a little bit of raising the roof in a taxi speeding through Istanbul, and last year an intrepid participant sent in a video of her group re-enacting their own version of “Happy Feet” on Petermann Island in Antarctica.

Here are a few great places to dance. Check the website, www.danceanywhere.org, for a complete list of events. Or organize your own mini-show.

— Natalie Greene is putting together a flash-mob-style public performance where anyone can join in at the University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton St., S.F.www.dancersgroup.org.

— Kara Davis‘ project agora will perform at the San Francisco Public Library‘s main branch, 100 Larkin St., S.F. www.project-agora.com.

— Dandelion Dance Theater will perform at the Blue Oak Café in the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. www.dandeliondancetheater.org.

— Artist and organizer Beth Fein, site-specific troupe Lizz Roman and Dancers and modern company vîv will be dancing in Yerba Buena Gardens, 750 Howard St., S.F.www.withviv.com.

— Deborah Slater Dance Theater will be at the SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin Street (at Fell), S.F.www.deborahslater.org.

Mary Ellen Hunt is a freelance writer in San Francisco. E-mail:96hours@sfchronicle.com

Share