One Chance To Dance - Monday 6/19 AND Photo Contest Winners!

STEPS! Dance Parade New York's Official E-Newsletter

June 16, 2017 Cabaret Law Hearing Issue

Inside this Issue:

·News from our Director

·Share the Love of Dance
·Dance Quote: Frankie Manning
·Photo Contest Winners Announced

One Chance To Dance - Cabaret Law Hearing Monday June 19th 1pm

·Watch this season's Dance Parade TV show on NTD TV

·Dr Sally Sommers on The Cabaret Law

·Community Engagement

·How to Support

Share the Love of Dance!

@danceparadenyc

#danceparadenyc

#danceforpeace

Dance Quote:

"I'm not interested in fame and glory. It's just that I would like others to know what a happy dance this is."

--Frankie Manning

1914 - 2009

Team

(Click to join us!)

Non Profit Board of Directors:

Erik Bryan Slavin (Chair)

Nicola Creary

Valerie Feit

Jerry Goldman

Mahayana Landowne

David Leventhal

Greg Miller

Philip Ribolow

Steering Commitee:

Greg Miller, Executive Director

Jenny Boissiere, Parade Production

Celia Kutcher, Parade Production

Carlye Eckert, Education

Valerie Feit, Education

John Dalton, Sponsorship

Michelle DeBlasi, Marketing

Martha Ma, Marketing

Jamila Holman, Festival Production

DJ McDonald, Curatorial

Mark Schmidt, Curatorial

Hal Lamster, Web

Donnie D'Amato, Web

Howard Gibbs-Hobgood, Volunteer Coordination

Jessii Parham, Volunteer Coordination

Rebecca Myles, Media

Bianca Rodriguez, Finance Director

Natalya Grigoriev, Finance

Brian Austin, Creative

Jason Parrish, Creative

Chauncey Dandridge, Social Media

Xi Zhu, China Committee

Honorary Committee:

(Power Team & Grand Marshals)

Maurice Hines

Frankie Bones

Mestre Joao Grande

Rosie Mendez

Garth Fagan

Kwikstep

Rokafella

Carmen de Lavallade

Robert Battle

Mary Verdi-Fletcher

Rekha Malhotra

Savion Glover
Jawolle Willa Jo Zollar

Hex Hector
Jacqulyn Buglisi
Baba Chuck Davis
Louie Vega
Ashley Tuttle
Elisa Monte
Bill Shannon
Trevor Hochman
Peter Zehren
Samir Bitar
Mel Alvarez
Jonathan Peters
Charles Reinhart
“Billy Elliot” (Joseph Harrington)
Kat Wildish
Amy Marshall
Jellybean Benitez
Elizabeth Zimmer
Ellenore Scott
Don Campbell "Campbellock"
Morocco (Carolina Varga Dinicu)
Luis Salgado
Luigi
Kool Herc
Danny Tenaglia
Djoniba Mouflet

Advisory Board:

Jeanne Fleming

David Katz

Teddie Kern

Anil Kumar

Joseph McElroy

Fred Shequine

Tasha Blank

Sponsorship Team:

Greg Miller

John Dalton

Nikki Creary

Phil Ribolow

Parade Production:

Jenny Bossiere (Co Lead)

Celia Kutcher (Co Lead)

Cristin Lafata

Grace Marinao

Jenn Converse

Erik Bryan Slavin

Gabriel Kutik

John Dalton

Dan Rosenstark

Daniel Kahn

Disco Mike Park

Bobby Speakerwire

Wandalynn Miftahi

Cheryl Gant

Phil Ribolow

Mekeshia Brown

Marjorie Liebman

Wandalynn Miftahi

Peter Vassilatos

Ollie Chase

Tim Golding

Jerry Goldman

Akil Davis

Alia Kubicek

Diane Dejesus

Claudia Lazo

Freddy Cosmo

J-Royce Jata

Alia Kubicek

Michael Fry

Rhina Valentin

Sharon Colchamino

Tatianna Bisono

Jamee Schleifer

Beatriz Cardo

Dayana Guerrero

Angelica

Doris Martinez

Michael Witt

Miriam Ross

Festival Production:

Jamila Holman (Chair)

DJ McDonald (Curatorial Chair)

Mark Schmidt (Curatorial Vice-Chair)

DJ Sweat

Shiela Jamison

Ben Vazquez

Ameca Holman

Bianca Rodriquez

Mango

Norman

Donnie D'Amato (Emcee, Main)

Shireen Dickson (Emcee, Family)

Educational Outreach

Carlye Eckert (Chair)

Valerie Feit

Caryn Cooper

Shireen Dickson

Leslie Pieters

Jamee Schliefer

Finance:

Bianca Rodriguez (Chair)

Natalya Grigoriev

Elizabeth Zaklama

Legal:

Victoria Behr

Carmen Casado

Jerry Goldman

David Leventhal

Paul Llewellyn

Kaye Scholer LLP

Marketing:

Greg Miller

Brian Austin

Jason Parrish

Hal Lamster

Martha Ma

Sarah McGlaughlin

Amanda Alston

Luis Vargas

Media & Promotions Team:

Rebecca Myles

Teresa Bigelow

Chauncey Danridge

Michelle Deblassi

Kevin Farley

Shiela Jamison

Special thanks:

·New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

·NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo

·Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer

·City Council Member Rosie Mendez

·NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl, Deputy Commissioner Eddie Torres, Assistant Commissioner Kathleen Hughes and Program Officer Stephanie La Froscia

·Community Boards 2 and 3

·NYC & Co Foundation

·NYPD Lt Christopher Cheng and Sgt Patrick McGuire

·NYC Department for the Aging

·New York State Council on the Arts

·Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

·NYC Parks & Recreation Director Claudia Pepe, District Supervisor Terese Flores, Deputy Director Venus Melo and Kevin McClain (Citywide)

·NYC Dept of Sanitation Superintendent Thomas Lincoln

·NYC Dept of Transportation Event Coordinators Michael Callery, Ivory Henderson-Robb and G.I.S. / Events Coordinator Shuan Bruney

Dance Parade

graciously acknowledges

our 2017 Sponsors and Partners:

Friends,

If you're in NYC then there's "One Chance To Legalize Dance" on Monday!

Whuuuuuttt you say?

Yes well, Dance Parade was founded 11 years ago in reaction to the New York City Cabaret Laws when a judge ruled that social dancing wasn't considered expressive enough to be protected by the 1st Amendment.

After a lot of hard work by many advocates and the work of City Councilman Rafael Espinal, the 1926 law that limits dancing to a handful of heavily regulated venues will be reviewed in an Oversite hearing this Monday 6/19 at 1pm (Press Conference on the steps of city Hall at 10am!).

Overflow the Chamber at this historic event on Monday. You can RSVP on Facebook here! Can't make it? Sign the petition that the legalizedance.org folks are doing.

Dance Strong!

Greg Miller

Executive Director

Dance Parade, Inc.

Congratulations Photo Contest Winners!

This year 44 photographs participated in the photo contest. A group of 7 judges who were dancers from the parade and parade staff each went through nearly 600 photos and choose their top photos in two rounds of selectinons. In the final round there were nine photographers who amazingly had one photograph each in the running: Annie Vercruysse, Leonard Rosmarin, Mark Sklawer, Miguel Chavez, Ning Kang and Peter Cai Robert Dea and Susan Dillwort--you were all amazing!

GRAND PRIZE WINNING PHOTO:

Congratulations Leonard Rosmarin for this festive photo of Choreographer Amy Rogers and The Hoop Movement!

2ND PRIZE:

Looks like a colorful group of lovely young dancers won the hearts of our judges with this photo. Congratulations to Miguel Chavez for 2nd Place!

3RD PRIZE

Magical ribbons captured judges in this photo by Ning Kang.

One Chance to Legalize Dance:
Monday June 19 at City Hall!

Dance Advocates rally to reform the city’s antiquated no-dancing law on the steps of City Hall before a hearing by those affected

Monday, June 19th at 10 Am on the Steps of NYC Hall

Monday, June 19th at 1 PM in City Hall Council Chambers

City Hall—On Monday June 19^th at 10am NYC Council Member Rafael Espinal, Chair of the Committee on Consumer Affairs leads dance advocates in a Press Conference Rally to raise awareness for Cabaret Law reform and the creation of a nightlife taskforce. The hearing at 1pm held in City Hall Council Chambers is the first time the Council has held an oversight hearing on the 1926 Cabaret Law.

The law requires a cabaret license to dance at any venue selling food or drink. Beyond denying to all New Yorkers a fundamental right of cultural expression, this law also has become onerous on small businesses, who already have to secure several permits and licenses related to safety. READ MORE...

Click the above image to watch the 3hour production of Dance Parade on NTD TV.

Dr. Sally Sommer, Dance Professor, Writer, Film-maker's sneak peak of her testimony at the NYC Cabaret Law Hearing

I would like to address what I consider the underlying question concerning the latest ruling upholding the 1926 Cabaret Law, reasoning, “social dancing was not an expressive activity protected by the 1^st Amendment.”

First if social dance is not an expressive activity, what is it? The entire world dances. Dancing is an essential cultural identifier: “I dance this way because I belong and come from this country, this group, this family, or even this neighborhood.”

Dancing is product exchanged and exported throughout the world to everyone’s advantage. It is system of nonverbal communication, embodied knowledge, passed on from person to person, as basic as the body-to-body communication between mother and infant. What happens is that we just grow up. Then we start dancing, keeping up that nonverbal communication with more people than mom.

There is no legal definition of dancing. In the most general definitions, which try to be as simple and all-encompassing as possible, dance has been defined as “rhythmic movement performed to music” or “formal mobilized rhythmic movement.”