Head Spinning

Comments (0) By Michael Leaverton Wednesday, Nov 11 2009

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Hip-Hop Culture

Many dance forms require a trained eye to pick out the good from the great. With hip-hop dance, you just have to have the spatial awareness to pick out the moments when your mind has been blown up all over the place. It’s easy to appreciate. There are no arabesques to deal with, no chassés to worry about. It’s cooler than jazz, ballroom, even tap; it’s about level with swing, depending on whether you’re in a smoky club, and burlesque, depending on how much you or the dancers have had to drink. And, as we’ve said, it has the ability to blow up your mind, especially young minds, which is something that ballet has failed to do every season since audiences got their first glance at the leotard. At the San Francisco Hip Hop DanceFest, more than 20 companies from the Bay Area and around the world aim to do just that, in two separate programs totaling four performances. Last for One will certainly do damage: This South Korean troupe is considered to be the best b-boy crew in the world. All the international crews are making their Bay Area debuts at the fest, so local dance fans can expect to get their minds blown up in new and surprising directions.
Nov. 20-22, 8 p.m., 2009