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Bay Area kicks up its heels for Dance Anywhere
by Sarah Adler
Adrian Arias / photo: Sarah Adler
What if everyone in the world could just stop and dance with each other, regardless of age or ability? That’s what performance artist Beth Fein asked herself in 2005, inspired by Bay Area National Dance Week. So she created Dance Anywhere, a simultaneous worldwide public art performance that has been spreading the word ever since. At noon on March 18, people in 27 countries on six continents paused to express themselves through movement in a myriad of ways to celebrate the annual event. An estimated 5,000 dancers worldwide participated, including some locally, at locations ranging from Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, to a painting studio in Petaluma, to elementary schools and retirement residences. In the Mission District, visitors to and those attending an annual meeting at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts took a break at noon to improvise a dance.
– Sarah Adler, Special to The Chronicle
Adrian Arias, 49
Profession: Visual artist and poet
Neighborhood: Oakland
What are you expressing through your dance today?
Connection with my colleagues and putting out the feeling of the building into the world. This is a building with a lot of different dances from the Americas.
What is your favorite dance move?
I love flamenco because it’s fire for me.
Did you study dance or are you self-taught?
Self-taught. When I was little, my grandmother and I would dance our way to the market through the streets of our neighborhood back in Peru. It was so great to have a fun grandmother like that. Sometimes I would get so excited that I would lose one of my shoes and she would say to me, “There you go again, losing your shoes.”
Jason Wallach / photo: Sarah Adler
Jason Wallach, 41
Profession: Events and media coordinator
Neighborhood: Oakland
What are you expressing through your dance today?
For me, dance is the ability to put your mind at ease and get into the flow. It’s important to participate in dance traditions and cultures that will outlive us.
What is your favorite dance move?
When I was growing up, the moonwalk was the best dance ever. Now I love to dance salsa. When you spin someone in salsa, it is so beautiful, graceful and fun.
Did you study dance or are you self-taught?
I learned salsa through repetition and by just dancing. In high school, I randomly took modern dance, but it was mostly to hang out and look at girls’ bodies – though I did retain a few dance moves.
Paula Marie Parker / photo: Sarah Adler
Paula Marie Parker, 57
Profession: Singer and arts advocate
Neighborhood: Oakland
What are you expressing through your dance today?
The Stagebridge Theatre Company guided us through dance in response to the art found in the Oakland Museum. We were encouraged to look at the artwork and then allow for movement to arise. I was inspired by color and was so excited to apply kinetic movement to a piece of seemingly static art. It was a very dynamic experience for me.
What is your favorite dance move?
Today, I was inspired to make a South African amandla fist that the freedom fighters used to use when they sang some songs in South Africa.
Did you study dance or are you self-taught?
I studied dance at Laney College in Oakland and for the past 20 years have been involved with singing and dance performance.
Jennie Rodriguez / photo: SarahAdler
Jennie Rodriguez, 56
Profession: Executive director, Mission Cultural Center
Neighborhood: Mission
What are you expressing through your dance today?
Dance is liberating for me, so I was experiencing liberation. I also tried to connect with the other people around the world so that we would all be in unison – the idea that the movement of our bodies would connect us felt inspiring to me.
What is your favorite dance move?
I love bomba. It’s the dance from Puerto Rico and bomba’s drums and African beat really move me. When I hear it here, this music here, I feel a longing.
Did you study dance or are you self-taught?
Self-taught. I learned in the cradle. I come from Puerto Rico, where kids learn to dance at a very young age and where the rhythm of our music is ingrained in us from birth.
Norma Olivera / photo: Sarah Adler
Norma Olivera / photo: Sarah Adler
Norma Olvera, 37
Profession: Administrative assistant
Neighborhood: Sunset
What are you expressing through your dance today?
What I was expressing was my inability to dance. I am the one Latin person who has two left feet and can’t move my hips.
What is your favorite dance move?
My favorite thing to watch is Mexican folklorico dance. I love to watch the skirts, the way the dancers move their hips and all the stomping – the way they are able to do all of those things at once and look beautiful doing that. Whereas myself, I try to do that and I look like I am having a seizure.
Did you study dance or are you self-taught?
I didn’t study dance. I am self-taught. I grew up in a Latin family, so everybody dances. I grew up dancing a bit, but as I got older I didn’t practice, so I don’t have the ability to dance like others in my family. But I get a lot of pleasure watching couples dance – it’s beautiful to watch how they flow together.
