CriticalDance Forum

REVIEW
Hip Hop DanceFest moves from strange to sublime, highlighting global art form

Rachel Howard, Special to The Chronicle

Monday, November 20, 2006

The idea of a hip-hop dance festival may seem gratuitous in an age when everyone from Justin Timberlake to a squeaky puppet named Elmo is doing it. But there was no festival dedicated exclusively to the form in 1999, when San Francisco dancer Micaya created the SF Hip Hop DanceFest.

Do we still need a hip-hop dance festival? Absolutely. You'd have to do more than surf through countless music videos to come up with a survey of hip-hop dancing as wide ranging, fresh and -- oh, yes -- roof raising as the two programs that kept the beats pounding and the bodies shaking over the weekend at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.