New Victory Dance 2025 Arts Break

Are you ready to experience a guided tour of New York City dance at New Victory Dance? New Victory Arts Break videos and activities are designed to have your family ready and raring for showtime before you even leave home. Here’s how to use them! All set? Let’s dance!

< Explore All Arts Break Activities

New Victory Arts Break videos are filmed at the New Victory Theater. We acknowledge that New Victory resides on the seized homeland of the Lenape people and the intertribal territory of many First Nations. We celebrate and pay deep respect to all Indigenous peoples, past, present and future, and we encourage you to learn more about these vibrant communities.

Try It Out!

Get inspired by past Arts Break videos and follow along with Siobhan as she remixes a few moves into a brand new dance!

Siobhan chose to combine a reimagined ballet move, a West African dance move and an interpretive move representing an emotion. Looking for more inspiration for your own choreography? Check out the original Arts Break videos (and more!) that inspired Siobhan below:

Add your own twist to a traditional dance style! Remix ballet with Lauren Sharpe.

Learn some house dance and West African dance moves from Olney Edmondson.

Show off your moves with pathos (and donuts)! Dance your feelings with Sun Kim.

Dance up your life! Choreograph your morning routine with Dwayne Brown.

Did You Know?

There are so many amazing dance companies hitting the New Victory stage this summer! Here’s a taste of what these artists are all about, along with some songs that inspire their work.

Program A

Program A features Luke Hickey and Elizabeth Burke, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE, A Dance Company.

Photos: Richard Termine, Jeff Wang, Whitney Browne

• While their piece was inspired by music, Elizabeth Burke and Luke Hickey also love sports—basketball, football, tennis, soccer—and looking for similarities between sports and dance.
• In Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company‘s piece, Lion in the City, the collaborators asked the question, “How would a Chinese lion perform hip-hop steps?” And the choreography developed from there!
• Ronald K. Brown of EVIDENCE, A Dance Company, creates contemporary African dance that educates and empowers people and communities.

Listen to a few songs that inspire the artists of Program A:
“Finesse (Remix) (feat. Cardi B)” by Bruno Mars (Kidz Bop version)
“Dance The Night” by Dua Lipa (Kidz Bop version)
“Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac” by Dizzy Gillespie

Program B

Program B features Max Pollak Group, Thresh Dance and Reggie Wilson / Fist and Heel Performance Group.

Photos: Amanda Gentile, Andrés Mercado, Johanna Austin

• Max Pollak Group is a cross-cultural chamber music ensemble with musicians who also sing and dance. Some of their movements are inspired by jellyfish!
• Thresh Dance tells stories from around the world. They have a lot of fun working together in the studio, even finding inspiration in their goofy moments! “Serious work,” they explain, “comes from a lot of fun!”
• Reggie Wilson creates what he calls “post-African/neo-hoodoo modern dances,” combining postmodern dance elements with the movement traditions of Africans in the Americas.

Listen to a few songs that inspire the artists of Program B:
“Juana 1600” by Irakere
“Speaking in Tongues II” by Sheila Chandra
“Jim and John” by Ed Young and Lonnie Young

Program C

Program C features RudduR Dance, Ishita Mili / IMGE Dance and Seán Curran Company.

Photos: João Menegussi, Mark Harris, Seán Curran Dance Company

• RudduR Dance‘s socially-conscious performances blend contemporary ballet, contemporary circus and theatricality to amplify underrepresented voices, especially from Black and POC communities, as a vehicle for social change.
• IMGE Dance welcomes dancers from diverse backgrounds, races and identities. They believe that body language and expression are the most powerful ways to connect intuitively with others, no matter where they come from.
• Seán Curran Company has performed Metal Garden all over the world. It’s also been learned and performed by many college students studying dance at universities across the U.S.

Listen to a few songs that inspire the artists of Program C:
“We Got Love (feat. Ms. Lauryn Hill)” by Teyana Taylor
“Sleep Sound” by Jamie xx
“Chicago Bus Stop (Ooh, I Love It)” by The Salsoul Orchestra

Talk About It!

Dance means different things to different people. Have you ever talked about it as a family? Take a moment to chat about the ins, outs, whats and whys of dance!

• Dance is all around us. What are some everyday things you do that can be transformed into a dance sequence?
• If you had to perform a dance inspired by your culture, what stories would you tell?
• Certain types of dance are also considered sports. Why do you think that is, and can you name any?