Description
Urbanity Dance Founder Betsi Graves began creating work under the “Urbanity Dance Project” moniker in 2008. Following the success of its early years, Urbanity Dance incorporated into a non-profit in 2011 with a mission to inspire, engage, and empower individuals and communities through the art of dance and movement. Urbanity’s mission and objectives are fulfilled by its organizational pillars of Company, School, and Community.
Urbanity’s Professional Company pushes the limits of contemporary dance, inspiring audiences with cutting-edge artistry and startling unpredictability. The Company is dedicated to providing visually arresting and musically stimulating performances for audiences across the country. The Company was voted Boston’s Best by Improper Bostonian in 2013, announced Best of Boston by Boston Magazine in 2015, and named a Top Ten Critics’ Pick by The Boston Globe.
The School at Urbanity officially opened in Fall of 2011 at Urbanity’s first studio on Shawmut Avenue in Boston’s South End with a class of 85 students. Driven by the demand for high quality dance training for movers of all ages and abilities, the School now serves over 500 youth and adult students through 90 weekly classes in its three South End studios. Urbanity’s faculty, all from diverse cultural and dance backgrounds, encourage generations of lifelong movers and dance enthusiasts through Urbanity’s commitment to technique, rigor, and fun.
Urbanity’s Community programming spans a range of partnerships with community collaborators through its three flagship programs: “Urbanity in the Community,” which provides dance curriculum to Boston Public School students who receive little to no in-school arts instruction (est. 2012); “Dance with Parkinson’s” which uses movement to improve the quality of life of those living with Parkinson’s Disease (est. 2013); and “Movement Mends” which uses dance to empower those who have experienced incarceration, homelessness, or violence (est. 2013).
