Youth & Family Programs at the Mark Morris Dance Center
3 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217-1415
About
Youth & Family Programs at the Mark Morris Dance Center include early childhood classes, children and teen classes, and workshops and intensives. The program is part of a broader range of activities at the Dance Center that also include dance classes for adults, a Teaching Artist Training Program, and Dance for PD classes for people with Parkinson’s.
• Ages: 18 months–18 years old
The Youth & Family programs are described by the organization as culturally responsive, inclusive, and non-gendered, and they are open to students of all levels, with and without disabilities, ages 18 months to 18 years. The Mark Morris Dance Group, founded in New York City in 1980 by artistic director and choreographer Mark Morris, states that its mission is to develop, promote, and sustain dance, music, and opera productions by Mark Morris and to serve as a cultural resource to engage and enrich the community. The Mark Morris Dance Center, founded in 2001, is the home of the Mark Morris Dance Group and offers nine fully equipped, column-free dance studios, two locker rooms with lockers and restrooms (one with showers), and a Wellness Center with space and equipment for work with partnering health practitioners, Pilates instructors, and personal trainers. The Dance Center is the flagship site for the internationally acclaimed, research-backed Dance for PD program and is described as wheelchair accessible, with ramps, an elevator, automated front doors, an automated door to Studio E, Braille on elevator buttons and on each floor, all-gender single-stall restrooms with changing tables on the 1st and 4th floors, private all-gender changing rooms on the ground floor, and access to a Wi‑Fi network for Dance Center occupants. The Dance Group states that it provides educational opportunities in dance and music to people of all ages and abilities while on tour internationally and at home at the Dance Center, and that the Dance Center serves as a cultural hub for the Brooklyn community and works with community-based partners; it is a member of Dance/USA and the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance. Leadership for the organization includes Mark Morris as Artistic Director, Nancy Umanoff as Executive Director, Bianca Golden as Director of Education, Elise Gaugert as Dance Center Director, Lily Khan as School Manager, and David Leventhal as Dance for PD Program Director, along with additional directors and board officers. The Dance Center asks visitors to use lockers for day-of personal item storage and to bring their own lock, and it prohibits overnight locker storage, food and drink other than water in studios, stiletto heels and shoes worn outside, most types of tape except spike tape, glitter and rosin, and open flames such as candles or incense in the studios. The organization has been described by Yo-Yo Ma as “the preeminent modern dance organization of our time,” by Bloomberg News with “highest praise for their technical aplomb, their musicality, and their sheer human authenticity,” and by Classical Voice of North Carolina with the statement, “With the dancers come the musicians…and what a difference it makes.”
Last updated April 17, 2026.
• Ages: 18 months–18 years old
The Youth & Family programs are described by the organization as culturally responsive, inclusive, and non-gendered, and they are open to students of all levels, with and without disabilities, ages 18 months to 18 years. The Mark Morris Dance Group, founded in New York City in 1980 by artistic director and choreographer Mark Morris, states that its mission is to develop, promote, and sustain dance, music, and opera productions by Mark Morris and to serve as a cultural resource to engage and enrich the community. The Mark Morris Dance Center, founded in 2001, is the home of the Mark Morris Dance Group and offers nine fully equipped, column-free dance studios, two locker rooms with lockers and restrooms (one with showers), and a Wellness Center with space and equipment for work with partnering health practitioners, Pilates instructors, and personal trainers. The Dance Center is the flagship site for the internationally acclaimed, research-backed Dance for PD program and is described as wheelchair accessible, with ramps, an elevator, automated front doors, an automated door to Studio E, Braille on elevator buttons and on each floor, all-gender single-stall restrooms with changing tables on the 1st and 4th floors, private all-gender changing rooms on the ground floor, and access to a Wi‑Fi network for Dance Center occupants. The Dance Group states that it provides educational opportunities in dance and music to people of all ages and abilities while on tour internationally and at home at the Dance Center, and that the Dance Center serves as a cultural hub for the Brooklyn community and works with community-based partners; it is a member of Dance/USA and the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance. Leadership for the organization includes Mark Morris as Artistic Director, Nancy Umanoff as Executive Director, Bianca Golden as Director of Education, Elise Gaugert as Dance Center Director, Lily Khan as School Manager, and David Leventhal as Dance for PD Program Director, along with additional directors and board officers. The Dance Center asks visitors to use lockers for day-of personal item storage and to bring their own lock, and it prohibits overnight locker storage, food and drink other than water in studios, stiletto heels and shoes worn outside, most types of tape except spike tape, glitter and rosin, and open flames such as candles or incense in the studios. The organization has been described by Yo-Yo Ma as “the preeminent modern dance organization of our time,” by Bloomberg News with “highest praise for their technical aplomb, their musicality, and their sheer human authenticity,” and by Classical Voice of North Carolina with the statement, “With the dancers come the musicians…and what a difference it makes.”
Last updated April 17, 2026.
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