Street-dance types in Japan can often be seen working on their moves in parks or in front of big plate-glass windows, but in Britain the dance movement is being taken to an entirely new level.
There, the popular long-running TV show "Britain's Got Talent" now boasts more urban-inspired dance troupes than the strange range of tubby singers that used to be its stock-in-trade, while in August the UDO World Street Dance Championships were held in Glasgow — and local authorities are even turning to dance to tackle anti-social behavior and gang violence.
Last month, too — although Japan doesn't rate close to Britain in terms of people behaving badly in public (nationalist bigots excepted) — "The Five and the Prophecy of Prana," a street-dance show set in present-day Tokyo, was staged again at the prestigious Barbican Theatre in London where it premiered last year.