News 5 Cleveland: Jam to your own tunes on public dance floor with Bluetooth speakers in Akron's Lock 4
Jam to your own tunes on public dance floor with Bluetooth speakers in Akron's Lock 4
By: Ian Cross
AKRON, Ohio — Akronites can now dance like no one’s watching to their own tunes at a public dance floor installation with Bluetooth speakers that anyone can connect to in Akron’s Lock 4.
Residents can head down to Lock 4 anytime between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. until Oct. 2 to take part in the public dance party at the installation created by Swedish architectural collaborative Dansbana! in collaboration with Northeast Ohio-based FRONT International, according to a news release from the city.
The installation depicts large-scale hands wearing rings and a bracelet and features Bluetooth speakers that members of the public can connect to their cell phones and other devices to play a song or playlist of their choice. The speakers stay connected for 20 minutes at a time before disconnecting to allow others to connect their music.
“FRONT International is thrilled to partner with the City of Akron and Dansbana! on the Lock 4 installation,” said FRONT Triennial founder Fred Bidwell. “Local artists and dance organizations sharing their vision for public space helped to create this collaborative platform for dance and creative expression in the heart of downtown and we hope Akron residents and visitors will enjoy engaging with this installation.”
Dansbana! was founded in Stockholm in 2015, and has since designed public, Bluetooth-powered, open-access dance floors through a community-driven process. The spaces were initially developed as a response to a lack of public recreation areas for young girls and women in and around Stockholm.
The Akron dance floor was designed and developed through a series of workshops with dancers from Akron, cultural organizations and local artists.
