The 17th Dance Parade NYC 2023 is dancing in the streets with over 100 styles of dance, from Sixth Avenue at 17th St in Chelsea, to the DanceFest at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village; on Saturday, May 20, 2023 starting at 11:45am. FREE! 🇧🇴 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇨🇴 🇩🇴 🇮🇹 🇯🇲 🇲🇽 🇳🇬 🇵🇪 🇵🇷 🇪🇸 🇹🇹
Dance Parade NYC 2023 Parade Route
The parade starts on Sixth Avenue this year. It is expected to run from 11:45am to around 4:30pm.
- Down Sixth Avenue at 17th St,
- Across 8th St past the Grandstand at Fourth Avenue,
- To DanceFest at Tompkins Square Park.
Want a Seat?
Grandstand seats are available in Astor Place Plaza at Fourth Avenue from 11:30am – 4:30pm. Your ticket supports the parade. From $44. eventbrite.com
2023 Grand Marshals
This year’s Grand Marshals are three noted choreographers.
Ronald K. Brown is the founder of EVIDENCE, a Contemporary, African, and Afro-Cuban dance company. Mr. Brown has a long history of developing Contemporary Dance in Cuba. evidencedance.com @evidencedance
Natasha Diggs is an international New York Hip-Hop, Funk, Soul and R&B DJ. soundcloud.com @natashadiggs
Elizabeth Streb of STREB Extreme Action choreographer. streb.org @streb1
Who Is Dancing in the Streets?
At press time, there were 131 participants. These are some of the Latin ones.
- Full Circle Soujas dance classic Hip-hop and Street.
- Heartbreak Crew dances Hip-hop.
- Fusha Dance Company dances African Congolese Contemporary.
- I.S. 347 School of Humanities dances Congolese.
- PS 56 The Lewis H Latimer School dances Asian Fusion & African.
- RuDance NYC dances Latin Ballroom.
- Bombazo Dance Company dances Bomba Puertorriqueña. 🇵🇷
- Hidden Treasure Dance Company dances Majorette.
- Tinkus San Simon New York dance Bolivian Tinkus. 🇧🇴
- Bloco La Conga dances Afro-Cuban Fusion. 🇨🇺
- Dancers Dreamzzz dances Salsa. 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇵🇷 🇨🇴
- C.I.C.T. (Creative Individuals Coming Together) dances Hip-Hop and Street Jazz.
- SVA Elit Dance Nation dances Hip-Hop and Soca. 🇹🇹
- Manhatitlan dances Mexican folkloric. 🇲🇽
- Yvonne Gutierrez Herencia Dancers dance Flamenco and New York Salsa on2. 🇪🇸 🇵🇷
- Success Academy Charter Schools – Network Dance Team dances Hip-Hop.
- Fearless Vizion, Comp Sci High dances Hip-Hop.
- Fit4Dance dances Hip-Hop, Soca, Afrobeat and Dancehall. 🇹🇹 🇳🇬 🇯🇲
- NYC iSchool dances Latin Social and Hip-Hop.
- EVIDENCE, A Dance Company dances Contemporary, African, and Afro-Cuban. 🇨🇺
- Los Andulleros de Santiago dance Dominican Carnival in the style of the Lechones of Santiago de los Caballeros. Watch out for their bladders! In the Dominican Republic they are for spanking unsuspecting parade watchers. (New York Latin Culture Magazine is in Santiago right now.) 🇩🇴
- Princess Lockerooo & the Waaction Heroes are Waacking. What’s Waacking?
- Bronx Arena High School is Break Dancing.
- Kids Breaking league is Break Dancing.
- East Side Dance Company dances Hip-Hop.
- Reaction Dance Company NYC dances Hip-Hop Bhangra Fusion.
- The Kingdom Dance Company dances Hip-Hop, Dancehall, Afrobeat & African.
- Karla Florez School of Dance dances Colombian folkloric. 🇨🇴
- Kaisokah Moko Jumbies USA dance Caribbean Carnival. Moko Jumbie stiltwalkers are tall so they can lead the people and keep bad vibes away.
- San Simon Sucre NY dances Bolivian Caporales. 🇧🇴
- Many NIA school dance teams dance Hip-Hop.
- Rok Nation Dance Team dance Hip-Hop.
- The Academy Marching Panthers dance Majorette.
- All Star Studios dance Jazz.
- Salay Bolivia USA dances Bolivian Salay. 🇧🇴
- House Coalition dances Free Style House.
- Third Street Music School dances Street.
- Watch Your Step Dance Club dances Hip-Hop and Street.
- MasterZ at Work Dance Family dances Voguing, House, Hip-Hop, and Street Jazz.
- Major Reaction Dance Group dances Hip-Hop, Ballet, Jazz and Majorette.
- Fraternidad Folklorica Cultural Caporales Universitarios San Simón Filial Va dances Bolivian Caporales. 🇧🇴
- Masala Bhangra dances Bhangra / Bollywood.
- American Tap Dance Foundation dances Tap.
- Quetzalcóatl Tecuanes dances Mexican mixteco Acateco. 🇲🇽
- The Glassdolls & Toy Soldiers Dance Company dances Majorette.
- Charles Drew Boogie Down Kids dance Hip Hop.
- SoulPhamm dances Hip-Hop, Majorette, Stomp & Shake Cheer.
- Fraternidad Folklorica y Cultural Caporales Universitarios de San Simon Cochabamba – Filial New York dances Bolivian Caporales. 🇧🇴
- Destined to Dance Performing Arts Center dances Majorette.
- Caporales San Simon VA, USA dances Bolivian Caporales. 🇧🇴
- Waterside Dance Company dances Hip-Hop.
- Flawless Dance Family dances Hip-Hop and Salsa.
- A. Stars Dance Company dances Hip-Hop and Majorette.
- Afovic USA dances Peruano Caporales. 🇵🇪
- G.R.E.S Manhattan Samba of New York City dances Samba. 🇧🇷
- Mambembé dances Samba Reggae. 🇧🇷 🇯🇲
- Caporales San Simón La Paz Filial New York dances Caporal.
- The Golden Dancerettes dance Majorette.
- Emerald Flame Dance Team dances Hip-Hop Majorette.
- MEC All Stars Dance Team dances Majorette.
- Destined 2 Dance Awards dances Diverse Multicultural Fusion.
- Okàn of Soul Dance Co. dances Latin Jazz.
- Young Ambition Dancers and Davidson Dance Stars dance Salsa.
- Andiamo! dances Italian Tarantella and Tammurriata. 🇮🇹
The DanceFest 2023 Dance Festival
DanceFest 2023 dance festival features performances, dance lessons, aerial and social dance on five stages; at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village; on Saturday, May, 2023 from 3-7pm. FREE! 🇧🇴 🇨🇺 🇲🇽 🇵🇷 🇪🇸
Emcees José Rivera and Shireen Dickson host.
- Bombazo Dance Company dances Bomba Puertorriqueña at 3pm. 🇵🇷
- Full Circle Souljahs dances classic Hip-Hop and Street at 3:15pm.
- RuDance NYC dances Latin and Ballroom at 3:21pm.
- Heartbreak Crew dances Hip-Hop at 3:39pm.
- Yvonne Gutierrez Herencia Dancers dance Flamenco and Salsa on2 at 4:06pm. 🇪🇸 🇵🇷
- MasterZ at Work Dance Family dances Voguing, House, Hip-Hop and Street Jazz at 4:18pm.
- EVIDENCE dances Contemporary, African and Afro-Cuban at 4:25pm. 🇨🇺
- Mazarte Dance Company dances Traditional and Contemporary Mexican Dance at 5:07pm. 🇲🇽
- San Simon Sucre NY dances Bolivian Caporales at 5:38pm. 🇧🇴
- Fusha Dance Company dances African Congolese Contemporary at 5:43pm.
- Xianix Barrera Flamenco dances at 5:48pm. 🇪🇸
What is Latin Dance?
Our concept of Latin includes the Americas and the countries of Mother Africa. African American marching bands and majorettes look to us like Americanized Carnival Comparsas or Samba schools. Those came from different neighborhoods, or even free communities in the forests.
Dancing in the streets was normal in the Latin world until the Colonizers banned Indigenous and African traditions.
The Bolivian dance groups are striking. It looks like half of New York City is Bolivian, but the dancers actually come from the entire East Coast. Most Americans think of Bolivians as an Andean people, which is true. But many Bolivian dances celebrate African Diaspora traditions from the Colonial Era. We are all mixed together.
We notice many Congolese dancers this year. Kongo is one of the three African Diaspora cultural complexes that rooted in the Americas. At lot of music and dances have Congolese roots. But again, we are all mixed together in the Americas.
Afrobeat is interesting because it’s African Diaspora music that became Jazz, R&B, Rock and Funk in America; went back to Nigeria through Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat; which became all kinds of modern Afrobeats fusions, and came back to the Americas as New Wave through David Byrne’s Talking Heads, and became Champeta in Colombia. Dominican Dembow is very similar too.
South Asian dance traditions are Latin in Trinidad where South Asian music blends with Calpyso into Soca, which you can hear at New York Carnival over Labor Day.
Hip-Hop comes from Jamaican Soundsystem in The Bronx, where Latin kids added their parents’ Palladium Ballroom Rumba and Mambo moves to Breakdancing.
Jazz comes from New Orleans, but before that from Haiti. So again, we are all mixed together.
Today most of us dance for fun, but universally in the old traditions, dance was how we prayed. Don’t think too much. Just dance!
For more information, visit danceparade.org
Check out past parades at our Dance Parade NYC Archives