Community Programs
Summer 2012
Ellis Memorial, South End
Urbanity Dance is excited about its new partnership with Ellis Memorial, a nonprofit social service agency, and is looking forward to leading an eight-week residency with 20 children, ages 8-12.
Spring 2012
Hurley School, South End
Urbanity Dance has partnered with the Hurley School to offer an eight-week bilingual in-school residency to middle school students (grades 6-8). This contemporary dance residency is offered one day/week for two hours with a strong focus on hip-hop and Caribbean movement. Urbanity is also participating in “Arts Week” where students will receive three days of direct bilingual Caribbean dance instruction and perform in a final showcase.
Boston Public Library, South End
Urbanity Dance is excited about its new partnership with the South End Library! On April 11th, Urbanity offered a free dance workshop to 15 students, ages 7-14, from the Keylatch Afterschool Program (KASP). KASP serves children from a low-income, predominantly black and Latino neighborhood in Boston’s South End. This hour long workshop gave children the opportunity to take a break from homework and experience the joy of dancing!
United South End Settlements - Children’s Art Centre, South End
Urbanity Dance was privileged to host two dance workshops during USES’ April vacation arts program. The field trip to Urbanity’s South End studio served 30 children total, 18 kids ages 4.5-6 and 12 kids ages 7-12.
Pilgrim Treatment Center, Braintree
Urbanity Dance is partnering with Genuine Voices, a nonprofit that teaches music to youth in juvenile detention centers, to offer a free dance workshop during May. The purpose of the workshop is to engage and empower youth to begin exploring their choreographic voice and expression. Youth will have the opportunity to create their own work using words, music and movement.
Summer 2011
United South End Settlements’ Summer Program
Urbanity led a ten-week dance residency at the United South End Settlements’ Summer Program in an effort to continue to fulfill our mission and bring dance workshops to students who would not otherwise have the opportunity. Urbanity’s volunteer instruction at the USES Summer Program - two days a week, two hours a day - served 60 students, ages 5-13. The residency culminated in an informal showing presented at the Intergenerational Celebration of Grandparent’s Day at the historic Children’s Art Centre, showcasing what each student had learned and helping students learn how to present their work in front of an audience.
Spring 2010
F.D. Roosevelt School, Hyde Park
Urbanity participated in a ten-week dance residency at the F.D. Roosevelt School in Hyde Park, MA with the sponsorship and support of the Boston Dance Alliance. Urbanity’s in-school arts instruction at F.D. Roosevelt - two days a week, one hour a day - served 60 students at the K-8 level and enabled 500 students to participate in an interactive performance.
Photos from “Dance Reaches Youth” Roosevelt School Community Celebration May 28, 2010
F.D. Roosevelt K-8 teacher, Sharon Hamel shared some thoughts about how Urbanity Dance's residency is affecting the school and the individual children:
"Students are coming away with a new concept of self because they are seeing a different part of themselves, moving alone and together. Students who struggle to engage in some other subjects are coming alive with dance and movement. When Ms. Betsi leads out, the students are eager to hear the next exciting direction where they can use their bodies to explore and create concepts through dance. I can see that dance teaches our students lifelong skills like cooperation and working together as a dance family. By partnering with Urbanity Dance, we are saying to our students that we want you to succeed at school and in life and we want to give you as many possibilities for that to happen."
F.D. Roosevelt second grade teacher Judy Doherty raved about the experience:
“Thank you so much for working with my children. They really enjoyed your dance classes! You made stars out of the second graders at Arts Night! The children and parents were beaming!”
Here’s what the children had to say:
“I like when you teach me dance moves. I am so excited on Thursday when you come. Thank you for coming.”
-- Alice, age 7
“I thank you for teaching us how to dance. I think your dance moves are cool!”
-- Nick, age 7
“Thank you for teaching us to dance. We will miss you very much. Can you stay for two more weeks?”
-- Celine, age 7
“Thank you for teaching us how to dance. I really like to dance because it gets you exercise.”
-- Melissa, age 7
“They taught me that any move counts as dance, it was really fun.”
--Yasimen, age 8
“I learned about body moves and shapes, it was a lot of fun. My favorite part was performing at the end.”
--Jemaurie, age 8
“I liked hearing new songs, and learning how to dance like Michael Jackson.”
--Amani, age 8
“I took ballet before, but I learned lots of new things like how to spin and do hip hop. We got to move our body a lot. Now I’m in a hip hop class too!”
--Kesanet, age 8
“My favorite part was Zumba… ‘1,2,3 ZUMBA!’”
--Naomi, age 8
“I like dancing, and how it made my heart beat faster.”
--Lex, age 6
“Dance is like whatever you do - like when you move your body - that’s dancing!”
--Letti, age 6
Urbanity Dance is committed to providing quality arts experiences both on and off the stage. Believing in the creative interplay between art and community, Urbanity Dance has supported neighborhood collaboration and the constructive channeling of vitality, especially fostering life enhancement for children and youth through dance and movement.
Urbanity’s Community Programs are designed to educate, engage, and empower young people to find their own creativity and artistic voice. Urbanity’s self-designed curriculum not only teaches the fundamentals of contemporary dance technique, but even more importantly... engages and empowers children through creativity to find their own choreographic voice, explore the gifts of physical intelligence, and build lifelong skills including teamwork and cooperation. Our teaching artists are professionally trained to rouse each child’s natural curiosity for exploration, creating a platform for children to express themselves through art.
Urbanity offers both one-time workshops and multi-week residencies for children and youth of all ages in school, afterschool, and during the summer. Through our ongoing partnership with United South End Settlements, Boston Public Schools, and several other organizations, Urbanity reaches over 250 students every year with contemporary dance residencies. Learn more below!
Are you a summer camp or community center looking to get your kids dancing this summer? Consider an Urbanity teaching artist!
For more info, email: support@urbanitydance.org