Quick Take
Three Pacific Avenue stages will host dozens of performances Thursday, and then it’s time for everyone to get their dancing shoes on. For just $20, you can sample any of Santa Cruz Dance Week’s classes, from dance therapy to Balinese, capoeira and bellydance, to name just a few of the offerings through Friday, April 28.
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If we’re catching you on Thursday, and if you happen to be in downtown Santa Cruz, that buzz you’re sensing is the beginning of Santa Cruz Dance Week. The week’s activity of movement and pageantry begins Thursday at 5:20 p.m. on three separate stages, all on the north end of Pacific Avenue.
The event is called “Dancing in the Streets,” presumably after the great Martha & the Vandellas hit. And it will feature a couple of dozen dance performances, from scores of dancers in a wild variety of styles from samba to ballroom to bellydance to hula to sacred Buddhist dancing to whatever it is the Santa Cruz Shimmy Mob does. After all that on the three stages, the event will come together for a big “Cirque”-oriented finale, with fire dancing, pole dancing, cheer and more. It’s all free.
The “Dancing in the Streets” event is a lead-in to a week’s worth of classes for those inspired to embrace their own brand of dance. The classes embrace it all — Balinese, capoeira, bellydance, even dance therapy. The schedule for the next week is chock-full, and you can get a pass to sit in with them all for $20.
Thursday is the day to watch and admire, but beginning Friday, it’s time to get up and move.
