I covered last years Dance Parade and it was my first and it was fantastic. Like many parades we have covered, this one didn’t have huge floats, hot air balloons, or celebrities, but what it did have was a parade that brings the people of New York together for a day of Dance and fun.
Dance Parade’s mission is to inspire dance through the celebration of diversity. On Saturday May 21, 2016 over 10,000 dancers will converge on the streets of New York City showcasing 75 styles of dance making the 9th Annual Dance Parade and Festival the world’s largest display of cultural diversity.
“The parade route started on 21st street at 1pm and shakes, shimmies and sways through Union Square to our Grandstand on 8th Street and University Place and concludes with DanceFest on 5 stages in Tompkins Square Park.”
Last year and again this year our focus was on the parade only. We were not able to follow the parade to its destination on 8th Street nor attend the DanceFest in Tompkins Square Park. After the great success last year we were excited to cover this parade again this year, but alas, it didn’t live up to our expectations.
My Disappointment This Year
I suppose the problem this year was the planning and we are not sure it was the organizers or the groups themselves.
You see last year each group had music that they danced to. It looked rehearsed and it was fun watching all the groups as they danced down the street. This year, there was very little music and some of the groups had none we could hear. I am not sure if it was our location or poor planning.
As you will see in our photo gallery it appears as if the Spanish-speaking countries were the most prepared. The smaller individual groups were not. Dance studios, both adult and children where there, but hey guys, how do you expect your group to dance if you don’t provide the music.
Although I shot the photos and some video, I decided there simply wasn’t enough great content to put a video together as we did last year.
So instead I hope you enjoy the photos I shot of the parade and hopefully next year we can once again produce a great video for our article full of dancing to music.
Our 2016 Dance Parade Photo Gallery
Photos By Len Rapoport – © 2016 International Press Association for IMPress Magazine
Click Images for Larger View and Slide Show
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