lift off 2010

Dance Parade Lift Off 2010:
A Shimmering Success!

Saturday, November 14, 2009 Dance Parade NY kicked off their fourth season in true celebratory style last Sunday, November 8th with Lift Off 2010, the first of several fundraisers planned as well as the official dancer registration kick off for the May 22nd Parade! 

The festivities were held at Santos Party House in downtown Manhattan in conjunction with the new weekly Food Party featuring the amazing sounds of Herbert Holler, DJ True and live trumpet action by Kafele in the basement.  A huge Dance Parade banner was draped across the dj booth upstairs and balloons of every color donated by Melting Pot decorated the space while brilliant projections by Bluecrash filled the massive screen onstage. 

Luis Vargas of House Coalition, and Dance Parade mover and shaker as well, played master of ceremonies for the night filled with performances aplenty.  Rodney Lopez and Amanda Maldonado of Dance Manhattan graced us with a titillating samba, Harry Gaskin of Energy In The Middle gave us some rollerskating action, Aerialists led by Justine Linnehan defied gravity with three separate shows and artist Mykel and The New York City Flaggers featuring Tina Thompson rocked the house with two magical performances while DJs Syntactic, d_juice, Cosi, Mickey Dulanto and Bruce Tantum of Time Out NY worked it out on the ones and twos. 

DP board members Greg Miller and Yana Landowne looked on in approval while Mel Alvarez, Managing Director of Dance Parade had so much fun he split his pants!  The Dance Parade Event Team was led by Production Director Shireen Dickson and was supported by the many volunteers and committee members that came out to support the amazing event.

Noted guests included Kate Peila, Executive Director from Dance New Amsterdam (who danced up a storm), Paul Nagle, Director of Cultural Affairs for City Council Member Alan Gerson as well as Alan Gerson himself, and Teddy Kern, Co-Owner of Dance Manhattan Studios.