Community

Founded in 2011 by Stefanie Nelson, Dance Italia has established itself as a vibrant community of international students, performers, educators, and choreographers who gather in Lucca, Italy each summer. The Festival, approaching its 13th edition, offers a rigorous dance experience in a supportive atmosphere, fostering a creative exchange of ideas and encouraging the exploration of diverse approaches to movement arts. Week-long Master Class workshops accompany a core technique schedule, complemented by discussions, informal showings, and performances.

With support from our university partners, Indiana University and Sam Houston State University, Dance Italia has welcomed over 540 students from 20 countries around the world and has performed for over 1800 spectators to date.

For more information visit DANCE ITALIA

SND's EVERYONE DANCE program, in collaboration with AHRC NYC, a disabilities service organization, provides creative environments for dancers with disabilities in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Manhattan.

Currently offering weekly creative dance workshops led by Ervine Haskins and Sara Galassini. Disabled dancers participate in creative workshops with culminating performances, featuring dancers from various adult day service programs to the general public.

Supported by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, Challenge America.

NYC free public performance venues have included Theaterlab, Hudson River Park Trust Pier 64, Baryshnikov Arts Center, STEPS on Broadway, REEL ABILITIES FILM FESTIVAL, AHRC NYC’s Church Ave residence, Theater MITU, Triskelion Arts.

SND's GIRLS MOVE US creative workshops are designed to socially and physically empower teenage girls, providing a safe space to self-reflect and take risks in a supportive, non-judgmental environment.  These workshops begin using prompts inspired by the book, 'Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls' by Mary Pipher PH.D., as points of departure. Establishing a democratic creative process at the outset, movement material is developed through a series of personal check-ins/discussions, stream of consciousness writing exercises, and movement improvisations.  Offering opportunities for each participant to lead at some point during the process.  Girls Move Us offers a gentle reminder to be the subject of your life, not the object of others.  These workshops culminate in in-school assembly performances and/or performances in a theater outside of school. The inaugural workshop was hosted at Brooklyn Prospect Charter School with a final performance at Gibney Dance Center in lower Manhattan.