New York City’s Dance Parade 2025 is a parade and dance festival that gets over 10,000 New Yorkers dancing in the street to over 100 different styles of dance. The Parade leads to DanceFest in Tompkins Square Park.
19th Dance Parade 2025
The 19th Dance Parade NYC 2025 gets over 10,000 New Yorkers dancing in the street with over 160 dance styles on the theme “Freedom to Dance.” It dances down Sixth Avenue from 17th St in Chelsea, Manhattan; to 8th Street in Greenwich Village, past the Grandstand at Fourth Avenue, to aerial performances, dance lessons, and a dance party at at DanceFest in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village; on Saturday, May 17, 2025. Dance Parade from 12noon – 4pm. DanceFest from 3-7pm. FREE.
Watching the Parade is free. Grandstand seats are available from $44 at eventbrite.com
Dance Parade Route
- Sixth Avenue at 17th St in Chelsea, into Greenwich Village
- 8th St, past the Grand Stand in Astor Place Plaza, on to St. Mark’s Place in the East Village
- Tompkins Square Park in the East Village
Grand Marshals
This year’s Grand Marshals are:
- Mercedes Ellington is founder, CEO and Artistic Director of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts in Washington DC. Yes she is the Duke’s grandaughter. I met her once at Duke Ellington Circle up on 110th St. She is very elegant, like her grandfather. @decfa
- Danny Tenaglia is a New York DJ from the golden age of disco in New York City, who is still moving the floor, just worldwide now. @dannytenagliaofficial
- Funmilayo Chesney, Artistic Director of the Fusha Dance Company, and an expert in Congolese movement. Kongo culture is present throughout the African Diaspora in the Americas, but is especially strong in Brazil where it evolved into samba and Latin jazz, and Haiti where Kongo culture evolved into African American culture and jazz through New Orleans. Chesney is also a musician who is releasing an album on May 16. Check her out. @fushadance
- David Parsons is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of contemporary dance company, Parsons Dance. He is also a respected choreographer. @parsonsdance
Dance Styles
These season features many forms of dance including: African, Afro, bachata, bellydance, bollywood, break, butoh, cheer, classical (Balinese, Chinese, Korean, Thai), caporales, carnival (Brazilian and Dominican), conga, contemporary, dancehall, dembow, disco, EDM, flamenco, folk, folkorico, free style, highland, house, hip-hop, inti raymi, jazz, kizomba, kuku (West African), Latin, lindy hop, line, majorette, merengue, modern, morenada, ori, reggaeton, rollerskate, rueda de casino, salsa, samba, soca, step, street, swing, tango, tinkus, tutting, vogue, waacking, yosakoi, and more.
Dance Cultures
Culturally there is African American, Angolese, Arab, Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Caribbean, Colombian, Congolese, Cuban, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Haitian, Hawaiian, Indian, Indigenous, Indonesian, Italian, Irish, Korean, Jamaican, Japanese, Mexican, Paraguayan, Puerto Rican, Scottish, Spanish, Thai, Trinidadian, and more. 🇺🇸 🇦🇴 🇦🇷 🇧🇴 🇧🇷 🇨🇳 🇨🇴 🇨🇩 🇨🇬 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇭🇹 🇮🇳 🇮🇩 🇮🇹 🇮🇪 🇰🇷 🇯🇲 🇯🇵 🇲🇽 🇵🇾 🇵🇷 🏴 🇪🇸 🇹🇼 🇹🇭 🇹🇹
Perhaps the most important element of the Dance Parade is not dance, it’s the community created by dancing together.
18th Dance Parade 2024
The 18th Dance Parade NYC 2024 dances from Sixth Avenue at 17th St in Chelsea, Manhattan; to DanceFest at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village; on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Dance Parade from 12noon – 3pm. DanceFest from 3-7pm. FREE.
- North American 🇺🇸 🇲🇽
- Caribbean 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇭🇹 🇯🇲 🇵🇷 🇹🇹
- South American 🇧🇴 🇧🇷 🇨🇴 🇵🇪
- African 🇨🇩 🇨🇬 🇪🇬
- European 🏴 🇪🇸
- Asian 🇰🇭 🇨🇳 🇭🇰 🇮🇳 🇯🇵 🇰🇷 🇲🇴 🇹🇼 🇸🇬 🇹🇭
The Parade Lineup of dancing groups is at danceparade.org
Watching the Parade is free, but Grand Stand seats are available for purchase for $44 at eventbrite.com
Dances
There are so many Bolivian caporales groups that you might think half of New York City is Bolivian, but the dancers actually come from the entire East Coast. There are probably some dances here that you never heard of. Isn’t diversity wonderful?
American Dances
- African American afro, break, cheer, club, disco, drill, hip hop, house, hustle, jazz, jookin, majorette, stomp, street, swing, tap, vogue 🇺🇸
- American aerobics, ballroom, contemporary, hula hoop, modern, roller, urban 🇺🇸
Caribbean Dances
- Afro-Caribbean
- Cuban conga, salsa 🇨🇺
- Dominican bachata, carnival lechónes de Santiago, folk, merengue 🇩🇴
- Haitian folkloric 🇭🇹
- Jamaican dancehall, and reggae 🇯🇲
- Puerto Rican freestyle, salsa, vogue 🇵🇷
- Trinidadian soca 🇹🇹
Latin American Dances
African Dances
- African afrobeat, Congolese folkloric 🇨🇩 🇨🇬
- Arab bellydance 🇪🇬
European Dances
- Scottish highland 🏴
- Spanish flamenco 🇪🇸
- Slavic folkloric
Asian and Pacific Dances
- Cambodian Khmer classical 🇰🇭
- Chinese folkloric, jazz 🇨🇳 🇹🇼 🇭🇰 🇸🇬 🇲🇴
- Indian classical, folk and bollywood 🇮🇳
- Japanese yosakoi 🇯🇵
- Korean kpop 🇰🇷
- Thai classical 🇹🇭
Pacific Dances
- Hawaiian hula
- Tahitian ori
Grand Marshals
- Brenda Bufalino, tap dancer. @brenda.bufalino
- Charles “Lil Buck” Riley, jookin’ dancer. Jookin’ is an African American street dance from 1980s Memphis, Tennessee. @artoflilbuck 🇺🇸
- Martha Zarata-Alvarez, Mexican folklórico dancer and teaching artist. @marthazaratealvarez 🇲🇽
- Norman Siegel civil rights attorney, former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Dance Parade Route
- Sixth Avenue at 17th St in Chelsea, into Greenwich Village
- 8th St, past the Grand Stand in Astor Place Plaza, on to St. Mark’s Place in the East Village
- Tompkins Square Park in the East Village
DanceFest
DanceFest in Tompkins Square Park is a dance showcase with multiple stages, vendor dance tents, site specific performances, and more. There is a Main Stage, Community Stage, Teaching Stage, and Social Stage.
More DanceFest information, including groups and performance times, is at danceparade.org
Dance Parade After Party
If you can’t stop dancing, there is official Dance Parade After Party with KS360, Misbehaviour and Liquid Todd spinning the decks at Radio Nublu (Nublu Classic) at 62 Avenue C, between 4th & 5th St, in Manhattan’s East Village; with 8pm doors. $20.
Dance Parade NYC
Dancing in the street is more than a great Motown song. It is a metaphor for freedom.
Callin’ out around the world
Martha and the Vandellas, 1964
Are you ready for a brand new beat?
Summer’s here and the time is right
For dancing in the street
The Dance Parade NYC was instrumental in the fight to repeal New York City’s Cabaret Law which prohibited dancing in restaurants and bars without a Cabaret License. It was enacted in 1926 to prevent interracial dancing in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
The Parade started in 2007 with over 2,000 people dancing in the street. What were the police going to do? Give out 2,000 tickets? LOL. The Cabaret Law was finally repealed in 2017.
But be careful of the Dance Police. They may give you a ticket ~ if you’re not dancing! So let’s dance!
Dance Parade NYC
Dancing in the street is more than a great Motown song. It is a metaphor for freedom.
Callin’ out around the world
Martha and the Vandellas, 1964
Are you ready for a brand new beat?
Summer’s here and the time is right
For dancing in the street
The Dance Parade NYC was instrumental in the fight to repeal New York City’s Cabaret Law which prohibited dancing in restaurants and bars without a Cabaret License. It was enacted in 1926 to prevent interracial dancing in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
The Parade started in 2007 with over 2,000 people dancing in the street. What were the police going to do? Give out 2,000 tickets? LOL. The Cabaret Law was finally repealed in 2017.
But be careful of the Dance Police. They may give you a ticket ~ if you’re not dancing! So let’s dance!
Social Media
X @DanceParadeNYC
Facebook @danceparadenyc
Instagram @DanceParadeNYC
YouTube @danceparade
TikTok @danceparadenyc