Friday, March 18, 2011

Happy Dance Anywhere Day

Once again it's Dance Anywhere Day. Has it been a year already? You didn't know about Dance Anywhere Day? Neither did I until I read about it in the SF Weekly last night. But no matter! It's been happening for the past five years and it's happening again--today! On six continents, in 27 countries, and 316 cities, according to the official Dance Anywhere Web site.

Whether you want to participate or just check out the dance anywhere action, I say: enjoy. The event was created in San Francisco by dancer and visual artist Beth Fein to focus on dancing offstage as a "worldwide community to transform our familiar and ordinary locations." And she's right. How cool and elegant is it to see talented performers break into dance during a celebrated musical? And how many times have you been brought to tears of joy by a well-timed flash mob performance? C'mon, admit it. Dance is emotional.

So get emotional and move around, or stare in wonder as you ponder your lunch order and someone launches into a soft-shoe across the tiled floor of your local Pizza Hut. I myself will be dancing in my living room, probably to our new Just Dance 2 game, but I won't be posting anything to the site. Sorry--you'll thank me.

Weather dance report: it's going to rain today so if you're in the Bay Area, look for umbrella dancers swinging around lamp posts and splashing through puddles as they make their way down the boulevard of public-performance dreams.

From the site gallery.






1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Many years ago I taped, er, shot, er, filmed, er, exposed, er, cripes what does one call it when done by a digital camera that uses a memory chip??? Many years ago I chipped my wife & her friends dancing in the salon where they worked. I dunno, sounds odd. Many years ago I created a visual record -- whoa! Many years ago I RECORDED my wife & pals dancing to Dance Anywhere day, but the camera, a now ancient model, did not record sound. So they stopped cutting & styling hair, and all danced for 30 seconds in the salon. I think a client danced, too. Kinda fun. Vid might be on the site, the silent dancers circa... 2006 maybe.
MC
P.S. and now I have a photography show at a different salon, 1757 Solano in Berkeley, check it out, where previously Beth had a show of her stuff, just to tie it all together here.