By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — Unsuspecting audience members got an impromptu dance lesson on their lunch break Monday afternoon when they were pulled on stage during the 29th annual Downtown Dance Festival.
The crowd struggled to make one hand follow another in perfect sync in circles around their body and head as Satoshi Haga, a director for one of the participating dance companies, demonstrated the move.
"It's so cool, it's like a magnet," Lower East Side resident Bernice Stein, 75, said from the audience.
Haga, who is with a dance company called binbinFactory, was encouraging even as the participants laughed at themselves.
"You've got to relax!" he said with a grin.
Monday's program brought hundreds of people to One New York Plaza for the 29th Annual Downtown Dance Festival, whose theme this year is "East Meets West."
Two Japanese dance companies, binbinFactory and Yuko Takahashi Dance Company, combined acrobatic choreography, traditional kimono-influenced costumes and live Japanese folk music in their performances.
Sarah Delacorte, binbinFactory's manager, said she was encouraged by the crowd.
"There are more people on the stage than in the audience!" she said. "This is what I like to see."
Stein agreed.
"It was a beautiful surprise," she said. "The dancers were very graceful. It put me in a nice other atmosphere."
The festival, which is put on by the Battery Dance Company, will feature free performances from 14 local and international dance companies every afternoon through Friday from noon to 2 p.m.
After the performances each day, the dance companies involved will participate in a section called "Everybody Dance Now," where company members teach various dance steps to the audience.
