Downtown Dance Factory
Downtown Dance Factory is Tribeca’s first comprehensive dance center. Launched in September 2009, we’re excited to offer a wide range of dance styles – including classical ballet, jazz, hip hop, tap, lyrical and special boys’ classes for students from twos to teens, and now cardio/dance classes for adults too! Downtown Dance Factory follows in the “dance steps” of our highly successful sister school in Sydney Australia, The Jazz Factory.
Our aim is to foster a love of dance and a freedom of self-expression through movement, through any number of dance styles and techniques. Enjoyment is absolutely our number one priority, however all students are encouraged to develop their dance style and technique to their full potential, no matter their age or level of dance experience.
Melanie Zrihen and Hanne Larsen are Tribeca mothers (with seven children of their own between them!) who have long bemoaned the lack of variety of modern, fun dance offerings in the local area. Their vision to bring a wealth of exciting dance styles and experiences to the children of downtown Manhattan, all under one roof, has come to fruition with the establishment of their newest baby, the Downtown Dance Factory!
Co-founder and Artistic Director, Hanne Larsen has twenty years of dance education experience, and is founder and principal of The Jazz Factory one of the leading dance schools in Sydney, Australia – the sister school of Downtown Dance Factory. Hanne trained in all forms of dance, as well as in theater and music and is a qualified associate teacher with both the Australian Teachers of Dancing (Jazz) and the London-based Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (Cecchetti Ballet). Hanne’s Jazz Factory students have won prizes at state and national competitions in Australia. Many of her former students have gone on to college dance study, and others to professional dance careers with companies in Australia and Europe, including Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Bondi Ballet, TasDance and Madrid’s Compañia Nacional de Danza. Having relocated to New York six years ago, Hanne has been thrilled to throw her dancing shoes into the ring at Downtown Dance Factory.
Co-founder and Business Director Melanie Zrihen also has a dance background, having studied ballet for thirteen years of her youth in her native Montreal, Canada! After hanging up her ballet shoes, she danced on to a business undergraduate degree, an MBA and years of consulting, management, marketing and mothering (!) experience, all of which she brings to her role at Downtown Dance Factory!
Downtown Dance Factory… bringing the best of New York City dance to your doorstep!