Taking It To The Streets of NY at the Dance Parade

Tribal Belly dancers Having Fun

     As diverse and multi cultural as New York City is, one parade that brings every one together to celebrate the most ancient of art forms is the Dance Parade. This young parade celebrated its 13th year and just like most teens, the parade was wild and full of life and energy. Over 10,000 dancers showed off their moves along the parade route starting on 20th St. and Broadway to 8th St. and then turning towards Tompkins Square Park where a huge festival took place after the parade. Along the way, dancers stopped by the reviewing stand at Astor Place to demonstrate their dance moves.

Bolivian Caporales 

Flamenco Dancers

Classy ladies in synch

     This years parade theme was Movement of the People and kicking things off was a float dedicated to the original ones. Honoring Indigenous people was a float carrying one of this years Grand Marshalls, Louis Mofsie, a retired school teacher and current director of the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers. Soon following them were a perennial favorite, Danielle Lima and her Samba Dance Group always get the party started with their dance moves. If you’re not moving it with this group, then you have no pulse. A section dedicated to belly dancing and fluid movements soon followed.

Danielle Lima and her Samba Dancers

Tinkus Having Fun

Mabel my Favorite Octogenarian

     70s music is always fun to dance to and uplifting. The Shining All Stars got into the action with their dance rendition of Right Back Where We Started From. The cultural dancing started getting hot and heavy with the Russians doing their thing. But as usual, the Bolivians bring out hundreds of dancers. They have such great costumes, high energy and lots of happiness doing what they do.  There are three main sections to the Bolivian group. First, the Tinkus danced with high energy. They are inclined with the Indigenous part of their culture. The Morenales is a more slower dance and reveals a part of their mining history of silver. They also have the best boots of any group. Gaining the most attention and applaud are the high energy Caporales. Groups come as far as Virginia to participate and they never disappoint.

     A group that always represents with class are the Flamenco dancers. Their float was really having a fun time. House music got lots of people moving even though the float lost some power because the energy was so high. One of my personal favorite groups are the rollerbladers. They always bring it and my favorite octogenarian still rolls up on her skates does a hula hoop dance. Mable is a living example of how music and dance are an important part of staying healthy. Got to keep moving. One group that always gets the crowds moving is Fogo Azul,  an all-female drum band. They were alot of fun as always.

       All the groups made their way towards Tompkins Square Park where stages were set up for more dancing shows. Other sections of the park were set up for dancing instruction. Dance Parade is one of my favorite parades because it unites all people across ethnic and socio-economic lines. It honors Dance in the Dance Capitol of the World right on Broadway. Shake that Groove right now, baby.

See Ya Next Year

Tags: dance parade, dancing, NYC, Parades, people, photography