Dancers are good at spotting potential stages. You don’t have to be in the studio to perform. There are places all over where you can turn the world into your stage whether you’re dancing down your own street or filming a TikTok in a park. An empty office building in Paris, France has become another unlikely performance space.
“There is so much space, and we can move around freely,” dancer Audrey Kouamelan told The New York Times about the space in front of CB3 an office building in Paris’ La Défense district. The building has one key feature that makes it a perfect dance space, mirrored windows. Dancers like Audrey and her group Young Nation come to CB3 to rehearse their moves and film dance videos in the open courtyard.
The New York Times reports that dancers all over the Ile-de-France region come to the place in front of the building to take advantage of the space for rehearsing, filming, and learning. Many of these dancers specifically come to practice hip hop moves based on K-pop music videos and performances.
CB3 has become an urban studio space for French dancers. The only problem? It’s an office building, that could eventually be occupied, preventing dancers from using its mirrored front as an unofficial dance practice and filming area. That probably won’t stop these groups of driven dancers. It was creativity that brought them to the plaza outside CB3 in the first place. We’re wondering what other hidden dance gems around the world give dancers space to practice and perform.