Bryant Park Dance Party 2026, hosted by Talía Castro-Pozo, is a great place to welcome spring by dancing outdoors to live bands for free. The evening begins with a free dance lesson.
The location right in the middle of Midtown, Manhattan feels like you are dancing inside a canyon of skyscrapers.
This is a really fun dance party. Talía Castro-Pozo is a Peruvian ballerina who is sort of NYC’s Latin Dance Ambassador. She is a great dancer, teacher, and organizer with a million-dollar smile. 🇵🇪
12th Bryant Park Dance Party 2026
12th Bryant Park Dance Party 2026
Free dancing outdoors to live music with a lesson
Bryant Park, Midtown
– Apr 29, Wed: Salsa clásica with Maria Raquel 🌍 🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇵🇦 🇵🇷 🇻🇪
– Apr 30, Thu: R&B, Motown and funk with L*A*W and The Planet 12 Movement 🇺🇸
– May 6, Wed: Brazilian samba, bossa nova, and forró with Turma do Samba 🇧🇷
– May 7, Thu: Swing dance and rock ‘n’ roll with Danny Lipsitz and The Brass Tacks 🇺🇸
– May 13, Wed: Bachata, traditional and urban with Liza + Willie 🇩🇴
Free dance lesson: 6pm
Dancing to live music: 7-8:30pm
May 14, Thu, Finale
Cuban Salsa Festival with timba and rumba (6-10pm) 🇨🇺
FREE
The May 14 Finale features two-time Grammy Award nominee José “Pepito” Gómez and La Royal Orquesta, plus 2025 Grammy Award winner César Orozco and SonAhead featuring Ariacne Trujillo, Gina D’Soto, and Ivan Llanes.
Brazilian forró is a great inclusion this year. It’s a country dance where you dance in between each other’s legs. I first saw it at a wedding banquet in São Paulo, Brazil. I didn’t know how to dance then, and it looked more naughty than I could be with someone I didn’t know, but one of the mom’s grabbed me and off we went. Forró is fun. Legal!
And if you don’t want to dance, just go, watch the dancers, and enjoy the music in this song of the city.