the vision
A message from former Board Chairman, Peter Zehren:
We’re changing the world through dance! Click here for a downloadable overview.
Dance Parade Inc is a 501(c)3 charity.
Our Mission:
to promote dance as an expressive and unifying art form by
showcasing all forms of dance, educating the general public
about the opportunities to experience dance, and celebrating
diversity of dance in New York City by sponsoring a yearly
city-wide dance parade and dance festival.
Our Core Values:
Honor: By ordering dance genres in historical order, ancient to modern, the parade represents all cultures and styles of dance to be honored. DanceFest invites the public to both participate and enjoy a taste of the parade.
Creativity:We are inspired by imagination and innovation. We encourage artistry not only in dance performances but also in the vehicles. Dance Police joyously ticket bystanders for not dancing.
Support: As an umbrella organization, Dance Parade empowers and supports dance communities that do not have access to public funding yet have a communicative art form they wish to practice and promote. We help them build websites, get access to materials, fundraise, and reach broader audiences.
Educate: Offer a public stage to and advance knowledge of a near-limitless range of human dance styles.
Unity: We encourage a non-competitive spirit and common love of dance among diverse cultures and genres. Our participants come together to respect Dance’s diversity. Dance is vital in healthy societies, helping people to communicate and affirm individual and collective identity. Dance Parade is a multi-cultural, multi-generational expression of the joy and value of these various forms of expression. It will foster cross-pollination of dance forms as it introduces audiences to novel styles and beats: teenagers to tango, clubbers to square-dancing, and seniors to hip-hop.
Accept: We acknowledge dance as a communicative, social form of expression. In the 19th century, ballroom dancing was deemed devil’s work. In the 1920’s, New York City enacted the Cabaret Law to stem interracial dancing from Harlem Jazz Clubs. The 1930’s had Nazi Germany quashing Swing Dancing because it was considered anarchistic. And in 2006, a New York State Supreme Court ruled that, unlike music, theater and painting, dance is not a constitutionally protected form of expression. In contrast, Dance Parade will highlight the diversity found in its many forms and showcase dance’s immense cultural and communicative importance.
Celebrate: The parade and festival serve to invoke joy and brotherhood.
