Mad Dance Festival

Overview

Forget watching your way through the Step Up franchise — if you want to see top-notch street dancing, you just need to make your way to the Mad Dance Festival. For three days between Thursday, May 6–Saturday, May 8, it's bringing a feast of fancy footwork to Metro Arts in West End, complete with performances, talks and classes.

If you're keen on checking out a heap of talented performers and their smooth moves, you have options. M.I.N.D.E.D. combines break and freestyle dancing in a boundary-pushing fashion — and pairs its hip hop choreography with an original score by Regurgitator's Ben Ely. Also a highlight: Anti Fischer's Love Letters in (e)Motion, which pushes back against the narrow ways in which women in love are depicted in movies. It's playing as part of a double bill with Cool Asian Mum's Guide to Life, with Amy Zhang taking her cues from life lessons and old Chinese wives' tales passed down by her mother.

For those eager to learn a few tips and tricks, an artist talk session will let you hear from the folks doing the dancing. Or, you can join dancer Sheru Bharadwaja for a community dance class on the West Village green.

Kate Pardey

Top image: Chris Cielo