Downtown Dance Factory News

Last month, three members of Downtown Dance Factory's Company Pink performed in New York City Ballet's annual Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. A huge congratulations to Cici ("Polichinelle" & "Mice"), Reese ("Candy Cane") and Willow ("Children" in Party Scene) for all their wonderful performances!   

The Fall 2022 Semester ended on a high note (and pointed toes!) with our end-of-semester Demonstration Classes.  Over the past 3 weeks, family & friends have been joining our dancers inside the studios to see DDF's classes in action. From our tiniest ballerinas to our most senior dancers, our audience was happily impressed to see what their dancers have learned. And it was such a pleasure to have all the families back inside the studio, after a 2 year in-studio Demo Class hiatus. A big "Thank You" to everyone who was able to join us in the studio for such a fabulous celebration of dance, and congratulations to all our dancers! We look forward to seeing you later this spring when our dancers take to the big stage ...!

A big congratulations to Downtown Dance Factory Dancers Charlie Head, Grace Aznavoorian, Ingrid Davies and Sadie Fraser who spent the last several months rehearsing, and the last two weeks performing in 10 fabulously professional shows of Chicago, the Musical with the Fiorella H Laguardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.  What a spectacular event! Charlie, Grace, Ingird, Sadie - you continue to do us proud and we love you!  

At the beginning of July, a small group of dancers from Downtown Dance Factory attended The Dance Awards in Las Vegas, the premier National dance competition in the country.  Attending for the first time and with only 8 competing dancers, and up against studios bringing hundreds of dancers and dances, DDF was beyond thrilled to walk away with an impressive list of achievements! Check out these national achievements below …

“Today” 
(choreographed by Emmy-award winner choreographer, DDF teacher, Al Blackstone)
1^st (tied) Overall Teen Group – National Champions
Top Scoring Teen Jazz Group
Nominated for “Top Jazz Performance” of the Dance Awards
“Judges Pick Award”
Chosen to Perform at Dance Awards “Closing Show”

“Undecided”
(choreographed by Emmy-award winner choreographer, DDF teacher, Al Blackstone)
1^st (tied) Overall Teen Group – National Champions
Top Scoring Teen Musical Theater Group
Nominated for “Top Musical Theater Performance” of the Dance Awards
“Judges Pick Award”

“Keep Breathing”
(choreographed by DDF guest choreographer, James Washington)
2nd Place Teen Lyrical Group

“Move Dance Be Born”
(choreographed by DDF teacher, Billy Griffin)
4th Place Teen Jazz Group

DDF DANCERS IN THE DANCE AWARD TOP 10 BEST DANCERS
Stella Wong & Charlie Head

In addition to all of the above, our dancers took class with such amazing teachers as: Tiler Peck, Wade Robson, Al Blackstone, Billy Bell, Blake McGrath, Savion Glover, Val & Jenna from “Dancing with the Stars”!  What a week!

Starting the 2022 competition season strong, Downtown Dance Factory has taken home top awards at Jump Long Island, Turn It Up on Long Island and at NYCDA at Meadowlands. Companies Orange, Blue and Pink have all competed large group numbers in jazz, musical theater, lyrical and contemporary winning the top prize with all their numbers. Small groups, duos & trios and soloists have competed just as successfully.  Dancers have consistently won scholarships, industry dance awards, special judges' prizes, and we've had Outstanding Dancer Awards at all age groups. Most recently at NYCDA Meadowlands, Downtown Dance Factory's Higher Ground dance - a jazz production number which includes 43 dancers - was selected among over 500 numbers across 12 studios to perform in the Competition's finale show - a huge honor and accomplishment. Congratulations dancers!! Next stop - Jump NYC! 

After the difficult year the artists and dancers of NYC endured in 2020-21, the fact that we love this city as much, if not more than ever is a testament to its spirit and its magic. This past summer, Downtown Dance Factory produced this video as a love letter from us to New York City ... It's created by artists who are part of its very fabric: a DDF choreographer who is an iconic NY teacher and former Rockette; a videographer who is a Broadway performer who turned his talent to videography while Broadway was dark; a DDF dance student who spent her Freshman year at the renowned LaGuardia “Fame” High School dancing almost exclusively online; and a dance studio that fought to keep its doors open and its students dancing and connected over the pandemic.

After posting this video, we were contacted by Sandy Kenyon at ABC News who subsequently came to DDF and interviewed Sadie and Katie for a News segment, which is also currently airing on Taxi TV! What a great story, what a great city! Watch the interview with Sadie and Katie here.

On Sunday, 78 members of the Downtown Dance Factory community visited visited Radio City Music Hall to see the return of The Radio City Christmas Spectacular! As if this wasn't exciting enough, we got to watch two of our very own in that kick line!! Miss Courtney and Miss Maddie, both former Downtown Dance Factory teachers (and still visiting staff, when not in a kick line!), are Radio City Rockettes! It was absolutely amazing to see their sparkling eyes and shining smiles up on that stage, not to mention their high kicks. We spotted them in each number and could not get enough of them and the entire show. It truly is Spectatcular!  

So glad we were able to come together as a community to support our teachers and the return of theater to NYC. 

We are so excited to be back again for another amazing semester of DANCE. Fall Semester is off to a great start, and the 4th & 5th floors of 291 Broadway are hopping with energy, enthusiasm and happiness each and every day. Dancers from 18 months to High School Seniors are here, in-person, literally skipping to the beat with their favorite DDF teachers and all their dance friends.

Welcome to everyone to an amazing semester of dance! It's not too late to join us, if you haven't yet! Click here for our schedule. 

DDF's summer program was on fire this summer! Eight weeks of dancing, crafting, friend-making and performing. We were so happy to have dancers back in the studios this summer. All of our summer dancers brought the energy, enthusiasm and dance moves to make Summer 2021 a memorable one. As we wave goodbye to summer 2021, we are beyond thrilled to say hello to all of our dancers new and old to our fall 2021 semester. See you starting Saturday, September 11th. Wishing our DDF community a wonderful last couple of weeks of summer and we really can't wait to see you this fall!

Last month, Downtown Dance Factory dancers and their families congregated at 3 World Trade Center on the 72nd floor for DDF's 12th annual recitals - 14 shows over 3 days in a raw space that looked out with a 360 degree view at the most magnificent city we all call home! After months of planning (and following fears we wouldn't be able to even have live performances), DDF created a theater in the sky and invited a limited audience - 90 per show - to watch in person, with over 500 more watching the shows livestream from home. And the shows were a huge success! Aside from the beautiful views, our dancers delivered with equally beautiful dancing! Dancers were thrilled to be performing, and audience members were equally thrilled to be seeing their dancers dance again. A huge thank you to all our families for supporting us and sticking with us through these toughest of times. We are looking forward to so much more dancing with you all!

Photo: Joe Woolhead