A Dancer's Guide to Boston

Delicate, classical melodies float from a sleek piano nestled in the corner of a brightly lit room. A sea of pink ballet slippers skims, brushes and pitter-patters on the worn floors. A diverse crowd of dancers step away from the double-barre and gather in the center of the room, prepared to learn an adagio combination of chasses, leaps and twirls. This is not a scene from a popular dance film; this is the vibrant atmosphere of an adult open class at the Boston Ballet.

            Located at 19 Clarendon Street in Boston’s South End neighborhood, the Boston Ballet provides the opportunity for students and recreational dancers to train in their 60,000 square foot, air-conditioned facility. According to their website, students under the age of 25 with a valid ID can register for multi-level ballet, modern and pilates and pay only $14 per class.

            “I think the classes offer a whole range of wonderful assets, from physicality to cardio, posture and musicality,” says Rachel Cossar, a dancer in Boston Ballet’s Corps de Ballet. “Not to mention, the people you might find in an open ballet class range through all ages and experience and can become a fantastic way to meet people and discover the city.”

            If classical ballet is not your forte, Boston offers an array of traditional and cultural dance styles such as ballroom and salsa. The Havana Club, located near Central Square in Cambridge, hosts Rueda Thursdays, an 18+ event that allows students of all levels to practice salsa with or without a partner. Admission is free during the month of May, but for the rest of the year $5 will include an hour-long lesson, coat check and an evening of dancing. Salsa lessons at the Havana Club are also available on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

            In recent years, popular television shows such as “So You Think You Can Dance,” “America’s Best Dance Crew” and “Dance Moms” have increased interest in learning both studio and street styles of dance such as jazz, contemporary, musical theater and hip hop. If you are searching for a studio where you can sample different styles and improve your versatility, drop-in on one of Jeannette Neill Dance Studio’s open classes. Open six days a week, Jeannette Neill’s instructors provide a unique and fun training atmosphere for only $17. Sarah Elentukh, the Artistic Director of Static Noyze Dance Company, finds that JNDS is a positive and challenging environment for any dancer hoping to increase their repertoire.

“Every week, Static Noyze hosts a company class where we share our signature style of hip hop. Jeannette’s has become our home, a place where we recruit new talent and a common ground for dancers to meet and collaborate,” says Elentukh, 25.

The dance scene in Boston has become so vibrant that Tarikh Campbell, a 2009 graduate of MIT and well-known hip hop choreographer in Boston, decided to create an online community for dancers known as “Dance Netwerk.” Dance Netwerk is a free digital space where local dancers, instructors, choreographers and crews share videos, post open classes and promote upcoming events. In an effort to engage and inspire dancers to train and take advantage of various opportunities, Campbell makes sure to reach out and connect with artists from all different realms of dance.

“I make sure to go out and support every member of my site. I’ve taken ballet classes, popping, locking, contemporary…all things that are extremely out of my comfort zone. Dance Netwerk gives dancers a chance to branch out and build bonds,” says Campbell, 26.

In addition to these well-established resources, Boston’s cultivated identity as a college town implies that there is a wide amount of dance opportunities available on campus. While various universities include dance in their schedule of fitness classes, many campuses have not one, but several student-run organizations devoted solely to dance. Joining a team often involves an audition process, but most teams host their own open dance workshops, often for free or extremely cheap prices. Tiffany Feng, a 22-year-old senior at Boston University, is a member of BU’s Fusion Hip Hop Dance Troupe and believes that participating in collegiate dance transformed her entire college experience.

“If you love to dance, or want to dance, or think you want to dance, go out and dance,” says Feng. “Joining a team on campus meant finding a tight-knit friendship group where we all bonded over our passion for movement and need for a creative outlet. We became a family, it doesn’t get much more real than that.”