Watching the whirled go by at a multicultural dance festival

On an overcast day when air sticks to skin, people are dancing everywhere.

Standing in a parking lot beside a towering stone church, a young woman enjoys a moment away from the crowd. With only her breath as company, she glides through smooth ballet motions, her limbs flowing like water. Later, just a stone’s throw away, a dancer in a fiery red blouse shimmies onstage, matching the rhythm of a plucky tune in Spanish. Up the street, sneakers morph into tap shoes, as a man in a button-up shirt teaches people of all ages the first steps of a basic routine.

At the Dance for World Community festival, people step to music from nearly every corner of the planet, waltzing across language barriers and borders.

“Dance has an inherent power to unify people across different groups, different cultures, different backgrounds,” says José Mateo, whose eponymous dance school produces the festival each year in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Dance is always present, and it’s a language that has an appeal one might say is universal.” When he launched the festival in 2009, Mr. Mateo saw it as a way to bring together Greater Boston’s dance community, whether they pirouetted to orchestral sonatas or stepped to hip-hop. He wanted to change the narrative around ballet specifically, he says, a genre that many people see as haughty and limiting.

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GRACE TO THE TOP: Ballerinas from José Mateo Ballet Theatre School prepare for their festival performance.

Today, as the festival shuts down a street near Harvard University, Mr. Mateo seems to have done just that. Throngs of people gather to watch troupes perform ballet over the hum of violin strings, twirl to Hindi music in traditional Indian dress, and even stomp to heavy metal.

But it’s not just professionals getting their bodies moving. Here, anyone can be a dancer. The idea that dance is for everyone, regardless of ability, infuses the festival.

“I always wanted to do dance,” says Sara Zhao, who was pulled onstage during an Indian dance routine. Her young children dance at José Mateo Ballet Theatre School, and she says she’s “living vicariously through them.”

“It’s just really cool to see all the different ways that people can move their bodies to the music. It’s really expressive and fun,” she adds.

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FOLK REVIVAL: The Mladost Folk Ensemble performs. Mladost means “youth” in many Slavic languages.

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POETRY IN MOTION: Dancers from Sarasa Natya Academy perform Bharatanatyam, an ancient Indian classical dance from Tamil Nadu that is known for its expressive storytelling.

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TWIRL POWER: Students from Wilmington Dance Academy, which offers youth and adult classes in Wilmington, Massachusetts, take the stage.

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FLOOR SHOW: A crowd watches dancers on the main stage. The annual event, organized by José Mateo Ballet Theatre School, is free.

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PRANCING QUEEN: Anne Wijaya takes a class in Indian dance. Audience participation is part of the fun for those confident enough to come onstage during the festival.

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DRESSED TO EXPRESS: Detail of a costume worn by a performer of Indian dance.

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FINDING THEIR FEET: The crowd is encouraged to dance freestyle in the street, changing partners every time the DJ yells, “Snowball!”