Oakland festival to showcase Bay Area dancers

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Art and Soul, Oakland's biggest festival of the year, is this weekend. It's a showcase of the city's art and music scene with 50 bands on five stages and a dance battle with the Bay Area's best street dancers "turfin'" -- the dance genre born on Oakland street corners.

The first video to feature turfin' was "Dancing in the Rain," a 2010 tribute to the brother of a dancer who was killed in a car accident at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and 90th Street.

The video went viral on YouTube and launched the career of Yorman Savion and his company Yak Films. What began as an afterschool workshop at Youth Uprising has become a company with global impact. Now they film the creators and innovators of urban street dance around the world.

So when they have the dance competition during Art and Soul, there will be a bigger message about young people in Oakland they want to convey.

They will be there for the big dance battle in the rotunda building which will also showcase the diversity of dance in Oakland.

The Art and Soul festival is adding a Saturday night showcase of music and video.

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art, music, viral video, oakland, entertainment, don sanchez

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