The Vancouver Public Space Network, in partnership with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA), Bruce Carscadden Architect Inc. (BCA), and Anchor Signs has just launched “Feet to the Street” – a public installation of brightly coloured dance instruction decals affixed sidewalks of Granville Street this summer and fall offered as a part of VIVA Vancouver’s Granville summer series.

Look on the sidewalks along Granville Street for bright orange decals featuring life size diagrammatic instructions for:

• ‘the T-Step’
• ‘the Running Man’
• ‘the Bunny Hop’
• ‘the High School Dance’
• and other classic and popular dance moves

In total, seven decals will be installed on the sidewalk of the 600-800 blocks of Granville Street in one of the first applications of outdoor vinyl graphics as public space activators in Vancouver.

“We love working on these kinds of public realm projects – they are just the kind of thing that enliven and enrich civic life. We were flattered to have been given the opportunity to contribute to Vancouver.” says Ian Mcdonald, partner at BCA.

“Feet to the Street” is intended to continue the tradition of spontaneous public performances started by the successful 2013 “Keys to the Street” public piano program. The installation is aimed at adding a touch of creativity and whimsy to the Granville Street pedestrian experience.

Coloured decals show the steps to five popular dances.

Who’s partnering with the VPSN on Feet to the Street? Some very awesome folks indeed:

Bruce Carscadden Architect Inc. is an award-winning design studio based in Vancouver. In just a decade of practice, the firm has designed and executed numerous building types for a variety of clients with an emphasis on community recreation projects in the Lower Mainland and Interior of British Columbia.

The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) is located in the heart of Vancouver’s cosmopolitan business district. The DVBIA serves a 90-block area that consists of 8,000 businesses, property owners and tenants – and attracts thousands of employees, tourists and shoppers every day.

Anchor Signs is a Vancouver based company that can print, CNC engrave, die-cut and build wall and window displays, sandwich-boards, illuminated signs, banners, placards and bill boards. Their expert team has created signage for every purpose in Vancouver and throughout the Lower Mainland.

Viva Vancouver is a City of Vancouver program that transforms road spaces into vibrant pedestrian spaces.

For more information, please contact Stewart Burgess: stewart [at] vancouverpublicspace [dot] ca

After a raucous morning of anti-Olympic protests in downtown Vancouver that saw newspaper boxes overturned and several windows of the Hudson’s Bay store smashed, an afternoon flashmob event on Robson Street proved to be one of the high points of Day 2 of the Vancouver 2010 Games.

Organized by Imagine1Day.org, the event featured a crowd of several thousand people dancing a synchronized routine to the Martha and the Vandella’s classic “Dancing in the Streets.” Along both sides of the road hundreds of other folks gathered to watch. The enthusiasm was infectious – with dancers spending equal time singing along to the song and laughing at missed steps.

While word about the dance had been making its way around the internet for weeks (along with instructional videos for the routine), the event kept true to the ephemeral nature of flashmobbing: it was over and done in less than a dozen minutes.

Imagine1Day, incidentally, is a charity working to establishing primary education facilities in Ethiopia. It’s not totally clear what the connection between this event and their work is… but that’s okay. Let’s take it at this: a bit of schooling on how to enliven city streets and add a dash of choreographed colour to the otherwise gray asphalt.

:: For more photos and video from the Dancing in the Street event see the VPSN Flickr set.