Nineteen Manhattan Youth after-school dance classes performed on June 1 in the PS/IS 89 auditorium, with costumes designed by Contance Tarbox. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
From Walt Disney’s “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” and the Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” to Michael Jackson’s “Bad” and “Let’s Get Loud” by Jennifer Lopez, Manhattan Youth after-schoolers were “Dancing Through the Decades.” That was the theme of the annual spring dance concert this month, with more than 150 kids from after-school dance programs at five Downtown schools plus the Downtown Community Center making their moves on the PS/IS 89 stage.
Photographs by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
“The kids have fun listening to different music,” said Susan Kay, who has been producing and directing the twice-a-year shows since 2010. Instead of getting “locked in” to the music that they’re used to, she said, the variety of music “lends itself towards different kinds of dancing, and it educates the kids.”
Students in the show come from PS 150, PS 276, PS 89, the Spruce Street and Peck Slip Schools. But once they are together, excitedly getting fitted and made up in the cafeteria, and applauding for one another at the dress rehearsal, “it’s just nice to have them all together,” Kay said. “There’s such a sense of community.”