Bay Area National Dance Week - BANDW - offers hundreds of free dance events throughout the Bay Area, dozens of them in Oakland. An extended “week,” it runs from April 22 to May 1.

“National Dance Week was founded in 1981 to increase awareness of dance and its contributions to the national culture,” BANDW promotes on its website, and with the Bay Area’s being the largest per capita dance center in the country, the first festival “took a national initiative and imbued it with the innovative and inclusive sprit of the Bay Area.”

These festivities have remained “the most extensive and best attended celebrations in the country” ever since. BANDW has continued to include more than 100 presenters, 2,500 artists and 20,000 attendees each year.

This year’s diversity of forms and opportunities are no exception. You name it, BANDW has free classes, performances and demonstrations. In Oakland alone, there are more than 40 free events including adult ballet (beginning, intermediate and Pas de Deux), aerial, African contemporary, creative movement and movement games, fire dancing, hip hop, hula, improv and contact improvisation, martial arts, modern Jazz, multimedia collaborative projects, salsa, yoga and more - making this the perfect time to take a class for the sake of curiosity, or to just try something new.

For events, times and locations, visit BANDW’s website, or Oakland Local’s own calendar for Oakland listings.