Vancouver-based Moving Dragon Dance Company will perform in the series Museum Dances at the Royal Ontario Museum in May. (Adam PW Smith)B-boys and contemporary dancers will temporarily set up shop alongside artifacts, gems and crystals at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto this month, as part of a collaborative series celebrating Asian Heritage Month.

Four specially commissioned performances will take place throughout the venue for Museum Dances, a joint presentation by the CanAsian International Dance Festival and the ROM's Institute for Contemporary Culture.

The idea emerged from the desire to "get out of the dark theatre and out to locations where we'd meet other people, where people who don't usually come to see dance performances could see some good work," CanAsian artistic director Denise Fujiwara told CBC News.

Dancers and choreographers, selected for the series last summer, drew inspiration from artifacts and collections at the ROM.

"When I first saw the exhibit, when I saw the samurai artifacts ... it really reminded me a lot of B-boying," Nathan (Zen) Szemberg, a member of breakdance crew F.A.M., said of the artifacts in the ROM's Prince Takamado Gallery.

"When someone challenges you in a battle let's say, in a dance, they're challenging your honour much like they would in a samurai culture."

The notion of staging an unconventional performance in the restrictive but nonetheless dazzling Vale Gallery of Minerals piqued the interest of Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer Natasha Bakht, whose work will be performed by members of Sampradaya Dance Creations.

"[The gallery has] corridors ,and all of the minerals and crystals and gems are in these glass enclosures," she recounted.

The opportunity to choreograph a peformance in a glittering, but restrictive, space at the ROM appealed to Indian contemporary dancer Natasha Bakht. (ROM)

"I loved the idea that the audience couldn't be in a traditional spot — you know, facing the dancers, so there's this frontal view — but would instead probably have to move around and see the piece 'in the round,' but also through these glass enclosures that hold the gems."

Staging these newly created, site-specific works will be a challenge.

Not only are the dancers forbidden to have any direct contact with the artifact displays — some of which are just three feet apart, Bakht noted — the performances are being staged during the ROM's busy weekend hours, in galleries that will remain open to the public as usual.

Part of the appeal will be watching the dancers adapt to changing variables live at the ROM, noted Fujiwara, who added that she had yet to see any of the performances.

"It will be an interesting thing to see how they interact with their sites when they're actually able to place their dance in there," she said. "They will have to make adjustments as they go along....There will be people milling about, possibly wandering into their sites."

The artists themselves are keen to showcase their creations to those unfamiliar with dance or to provide new insight into their particular dance genre.

F.A.M. B-boys Nathan (Zen) Szemberg, left, and Juan (Siez) Esguerra are eager to showcase the crew's new, story-based breakdance performance at the ROM. (Jessica Wong/CBC) "It's just fun to work in a space that's not your traditional kind of theatre. I think it's going to bring out different audience members as well ... people who are more reluctant to go to a theatre venue. and sit down and watch contemporary dance," Bakht said.

"It's great to present our dance to a different audience or present our dance differently to the same audience," said Juan (Siez) Esguerra, another member of F.A.M.

"A lot of the times [a breakdance performance] is just a showcase or it's just tricks. But when you actually get to put a story to it, it gives more value to what we do."

Museum Dances, which will also feature contemporary Chinese dance by Moving Dragon and contemporary Korean dance from the JM Dance Collective, takes place May 7-9 and May 14-16 at the ROM.