Dance Happens Here 2022 at The Dance Complex

Selected streets in Central Square will be closed to traffic from 2-9pm as music, movement, food, culture, and business all come together in celebration. This free afternoon will include dance lessons by Dance Complex Teaching Artists in styles ranging from Samba to Swing, flash performances by area dance troupes, music from a rooftop DJ, and food trucks for those who work up an appetite.The Dance Complex in collaboration with Central Square Theater, the oldest female-led theater organization in Greater Boston, will launch a new project called Community/RITUALS. This two year project is focused on the expression of Carribean (Haitan/Latin) cultural rituals through combining music, dance, and theatrical storytelling. Central Square Theater will be hosting Story Gathering alongside Dance Happens Here: 2022 The local Haitian and Latin communities are welcomed and encouraged to share their stories through listening booths\ inspired by StoryCorps, large scale boards for written and visual storytelling as well as other opportunities for engagement. Community/RITUALS is funded, in part, by The Wagner Foundation.Mass. Ave between Pearl and Brookline Streets will close to traffic at 5pm as the party expands to The Dance Complexs front door. The public will bedancing in the street, along with live performances by movement companies and percussion groups as Dance Happens Here: 2022 builds to a crescendo.As sunset arrives in Central Square, the faade of 536 Mass. Ave will be illuminated by a window installation created with MASARY of large scale photographs depicting stories of intergenerational/cross cultural dance.