Friday, January 20, 2006
Dance is IN in Cambridge
I recently started a dance practice group with a good friend of mine from the Lindy scene in Boston. It's a small group, just a few of our friends from the Boston scene, and recently a few more friends from the Providence Lindy scene. We have a lot of fun...it's great to get together and work out moves and timing and just dance.
Since we're still relatively new, we've been working on finding regular space in which to practice, because we've grown bigger than any of our living rooms can accommodate. So I've started researching places in Cambridge and Boston that rent out rehearsal space for dancers. And I was blown away by how many places do actually rent out space for pretty reasonable prices! Granted, they fill up rather quickly for weekend times, but still...there are so many options to go through!
Is it crazy for me to be so surprised by this? Maybe, maybe not. Since moving to Cambridge I've heard again and again that the City of Cambridge is known for its support of the arts, and dance is most certainly included in that. But I come from Minnesota originally [as if you hadn't figured that out yet...but just in case you hadn't...haha!] and finding space to dance in the Twin Cities was always a challenge for our Lindy scene. That's what I'm used to...the discussion of putting together a dance or something, and the inevitable hesitation because it'll be hard to find space to rent in which to dance.
But here in Cambridge, it's a completely different story. Dance studios and arts center abound. They're willing to give us space if they have it available, willing to negotiate prices if we want to use them as a regular rehearsal space, and the studios are spacious with good quality dance floors! It's like a dance rehearsal space heaven!
On the topic of dance in Cambridge, I'm also a little more amazed than I probably should be at the number of places that offer dance classes for really great prices. Perfect for students or young people a few years out of college who can't pay a lot for classes. [like me!] A little research online (we're talking maybe 10 minutes of web surfing) brought me The Dance Complex in Central Square, and the Boston Dance Alliance website, plus a bunch of other links from my google searches that I didn't pursue but were relevant to my research.
I must say, as a dancer looking to broaden her dance vocabulary into other forms of dance, I feel so welcome and wanted in this community. Cambridge, in my humble opinion, is the place for dancers to be!
Since we're still relatively new, we've been working on finding regular space in which to practice, because we've grown bigger than any of our living rooms can accommodate. So I've started researching places in Cambridge and Boston that rent out rehearsal space for dancers. And I was blown away by how many places do actually rent out space for pretty reasonable prices! Granted, they fill up rather quickly for weekend times, but still...there are so many options to go through!
Is it crazy for me to be so surprised by this? Maybe, maybe not. Since moving to Cambridge I've heard again and again that the City of Cambridge is known for its support of the arts, and dance is most certainly included in that. But I come from Minnesota originally [as if you hadn't figured that out yet...but just in case you hadn't...haha!] and finding space to dance in the Twin Cities was always a challenge for our Lindy scene. That's what I'm used to...the discussion of putting together a dance or something, and the inevitable hesitation because it'll be hard to find space to rent in which to dance.
But here in Cambridge, it's a completely different story. Dance studios and arts center abound. They're willing to give us space if they have it available, willing to negotiate prices if we want to use them as a regular rehearsal space, and the studios are spacious with good quality dance floors! It's like a dance rehearsal space heaven!
On the topic of dance in Cambridge, I'm also a little more amazed than I probably should be at the number of places that offer dance classes for really great prices. Perfect for students or young people a few years out of college who can't pay a lot for classes. [like me!] A little research online (we're talking maybe 10 minutes of web surfing) brought me The Dance Complex in Central Square, and the Boston Dance Alliance website, plus a bunch of other links from my google searches that I didn't pursue but were relevant to my research.
I must say, as a dancer looking to broaden her dance vocabulary into other forms of dance, I feel so welcome and wanted in this community. Cambridge, in my humble opinion, is the place for dancers to be!
// posted by Nina @ 11:08 AM 
