Downtown Dance Factory News

It's October, and dancing at Downtown Dance Factory is FULL-ON! From our most advanced high school seniors to our littlest "Kindi" dancers, everyone is just so happy to be back in the studio and/or on Zoom dancing with all their friends and favorite teachers. With safety always a top priority, dancers and teachers alike are wearing masks at all times and and following all required precautions and protocols.  Everything, from entry to the space and into the studios to dancing and dismissal, follows our strict guidelines to ensure the health of our dance community. Wondering how that all works? check out our short video that explains how everything flows to make dancing at DDF as fun, supportive and instructive as always, regardless of the circumstances. We are having a blast, and we are so happy to be back to dancing with all of you!  

Downtown Dance Factory started its ‘phase in” period today for our Fall Semester.   With lots of new safety protocols and procedures in place, our invitational dancers joined us today in the studio (as well as on zoom from far and wide!) for Day 1 of a new and exciting dance journey together!  The smiles on the dancers’ faces were evidence of how happy they are to be back dancing together again, and their beautiful technique and artistry was evidence that the zoom training we provided over shutdown has not only worked, but paid great dividends!  Invitational classes continue over the course of this week, with all of our other classes beginning on Saturday September 19^th.   The motto of this semester is … “IF WE KEEP SAFE, WE KEEP DANCING”!  We’re in this together and … it feels so good!

On what would have been Downtown Dance Factory's favorite weekend of the year - RECITAL WEEKEND - DDF ‘s dancers reminisce about DDF, the past semester of online learning and their journey back to the studio. Worth a watch! Click here for the DDF dancers in "I Wanna Dance with Somebody"!

Downtown Dance Factory's Virtual classes for preschool age kids were already a huge hit ... Somehow they just got a whole lot more fun with our weekly Virtual KindiDance Parties! Aimed at kids aged 18 months to 5 years, our themed KindiDance parties run every Wednesday morning at 11am. First we all dressed as our favorite princess, prince or member of the royal court and had a fabulous tea party! The following week we rocked it out with the Trolls, dancing to everyone's favorites, but always taking time for Trolls Hug Time! Led by the amazing Miss Vicki, with her dance space decked out with decorations and crafts to make all little ones feel fully immersed, so many DDF dancers have joined in the fun! Check out our Trolls party recap video here! You can also learn how to decorate with your little one with these craft videos made by Miss Vicki.  

Watercolor Butterflies
Trolls Hug Time Bracelet 

Said one happy parent: I have to tip my hat off to you guys - you’re doing amazing with this at home learning for dance. Just made the butterflies with my daughter and they are a hit. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Vicki is awesome, we love her.

Though Downtown Dance Factory dancers are physically apart, they managed to find a way to come together in dance! Using the poetic Beatles song "Let It Be", sung hauntingly and beautifully by the talented Missy Higgins, Artistic Director Hanne Larsen and DDF teacher and choreographer Kaitlynn Edgar created a work of art starring the Downtown Dance Factory dancers.  We invited all dancers to participate by learning a section of the dance choreographed by Kaitlynn and by improvising to other parts of the song. 180 dancers submitted videos of themselves dancing wherever they are, from their NYC apartments and rooftops to piers and balconies and beaches to which they'd escaped. Click here to see their performance!       

The launch of Downtown Dance Factory's VirtualDDF - our livestreamed dance classes - was a huge success!  With over 80 virtual classes a week to choose from, approximately 1,600 dancers logged into Zoom to dance with us in our first week!  VirtualDDF caters to all ages and all dance genres, and is taught by a cast of DDF's favorite teachers.  Our first week of virtual classes was met with enthusiastic and energetic dancers, as well as so many happy parents, relieved to see their kids enjoying their dance passion once again. 

VirtualDDF began this week and the buzz is amazing! With over 80 classes a week to choose from, DDF dancers are logging in to our Zoom sessions mutiple times a day to take classes in various genres and with various teachers. Over 800 dancers have joined us already this week!

What's different about VirtualDDF? Well, aside from dancing at home, dancers are able to take as many classes as they want! We've seen so many dancers showing up in Zoom classes in genres they've never done before. (And they're doing great, too! ;)

And the kids are so excited to be reunited with their dance friends and teachers. We've had such wonderful reunions, virtual hugs, and teachers reporting happy tears following their classes at how VirtualDDF is bringing joy to so many, including them! 

We may all have to stay home, but #dancingwhiledistancing is making that a whole lot more fun!  

We could not be prouder of our dancers after an absolutely amazing (and truly successful!) first competition! Every single DDF piece looked fantastic and in fact, not a single DDF dance received less than a prestigious "Platinum" Award. Downtown Dance Factory was also named "Studio of Excellence" for the competition, so well done to all involved! 

Last night, Downtown Dance Factory's Company Blue, Company Orange & Company Green hit center court at the Barclays Center to dance primetime before the Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors game. Dancing with style and grace to Lenny Kravitz's Are you Gonna Go My Way, this group - with 41 dancers ranging in age from 9 through 17 years - did us proud! Congratulations dancers, and thank you to our supportive and wonderful parents and biggest fans!

And here is a link to Downtown Dance Factory's primetime performance at the January 31st NBA game - an awesome night of dancing for Company Blue and Company Red. Enjoy!