Free Guest Artist Dance Workshops

Harlem Dance Club's Free Guest Artist Dance Workshops introduce the Harlem community and beyond to legendary teaching artists. The workshops are formatted to create a strong sense of community even though most participants are meeting for the first time. This is due in part to the thread that binds our Guest Artists -  living legends and inspiring artists who are passionate about sharing and perpetuating the culture and philosophies of the dance movements and styles they represent, each with a highly inclusive approach. Examples include: Conrad Rochester and The Loft Practice, Tyrone Proctor and Waacking, Kim Holmes and Afro-Fusion. 

The focus of these dance workshops is not weight loss or becoming a better dancer because we feel that does not happen in one 90 minute lesson. We want to provide participants with a FREE opportunity to get in the room with iconic artists, all of whom are fantastic teachers, so that their interest in the art form is peaked. We try to break down traditional classroom dichotomy of teacher and student; participants are given full access to the guests artists and are encouraged to ask questions.

All Guest Artist Workshops are held on Saturday afternoons at Pelham Fritz Recreation Center in Marcus Garvey Park.

- Outreach to and secure legendary teaching artists to lead a Guest Artist Workshop at Pelham Fritz Recreation Center

- Design and print promotional postcard and flyer

- Promote our Guest Artist Workshops on social media

- Work with NYC Department of Parks and Recreation to distribute postcards and flyers and share information about FREE Guest Artist Workshops via their online community calendar

- Share updates about Guest Artist Workshops with the Harlem Dance Club email list (800+ people)

In doing our needs assessment, we found that accessible dance programming in Harlem was predominantly geared toward youth. We set out to create a welcoming environment for adults, where they could reconnect with a part of themselves that they don't always get to fully express -- dancing in community for pleasure and enrichment. Today, Harlem Dance Club is a unique offering to the Harlem community. We deliver dance programming and lifestyle to everybody. The type of programming we offer demonstrates how easy it can be to  break down social-economic, ethnic, and generational barriers in the process. We do not believe dance is only accessible to professionals in the field or the “physically able”, so we have a very broad idea of who our target audience is.