Dance for Dance for Social Change is MDD’s community celebration! Our annual event raises critical awareness and funds needed to support our mission and programs.
Tickets, Donations, and Sponsorships can be found here.
Silent Auction coming soon to Bidding Owl
Donations by Check: Note that our building in NYC is under construction and our mailbox is inaccessible at this time. Mail checks to P.O. Box 218, Ancram, NY 12502-0218.
We use dance to engage and empower NYC students through performance and education. For over a decade, MDD has produced the annual event with so much volunteer and in-kind support that direct costs pre-COVID were less than 5% of gross revenue with 95% going to programs. In COVID and with a virtual event, 100% of funds support our programs.
Dance for Dance for Social Change 2024 is our 37th Anniversary Celebration and Dance Party of the Year! We will feature our 37-year commitment to bring impactful evidence-based dance education to disenfranchised and under-resourced communities and public schools across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. We will honor legendary dancers, choreographers and teachers Phyllis Lamhut and Douglas Dunn with our “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Awards. The evening will include dancing to DJ Steve, an online silent auction, a live shout out auction, special guests, performances, and a dance lesson. Dance for Dance for Social Change 37th Anniversary will be at St. Mary’s Church on the Lower East Side on May 9th, 2024, 6:30-9:00 PM.
- Fun! Diversity! and Inclusivity! are traditional hallmarks of our event for more than 10 years.
- Ours is a family-style party where everyone is welcome and encouraged to join us!
Disclaimer for 2024 attendees:
*Photographs and/or video will be taken during the dance party.
By taking part in this event you grant the event organizers full rights to use the images resulting from the photography/video filming, and any reproductions or adaptations of the images for fundraising, publicity or other purposes to help achieve the group’s aims. This might include (but is not limited to), the right to use them in their printed and online publicity, social media, press releases and funding applications.
2024
Lyn DeSantis*
Rebecca Ervey*
Sarah Finlayson and Lindley DeGarmo
Jill Ganey
Lawrence P. Holodak*
Kathleen Kheel*
Lara and Darius Mehraban
The Kyle J. Mulrooney Foundation
The Rothfeld Family Foundation
Lisa Shaari*
Barbara Sherman
Nick Velasquez*
*MDD Board Members
In Formation
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine
NYC Council Member Christopher Marte District 1
NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher District 3
NYC Council Member Diana Ayala District 8
NY State Assembly Member Harvey Epstein District 74
NY State Senator Brian Kavanagh District 27
In Formation
Mark DeGarmo Dance’s DANCE FOR DANCE (D4D) FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 2024 honors acclaimed Dancers, Teachers, Directors, and Choreographers Phyllis Lamhut & Douglas Dunn with its “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Award 2024. Thursday, May 9, 2024, 6:30-9:00 PM, St. Mary’s Church, NYC’s Lower East Side. D4D raises awareness & funds for NYC Public Elementary School Dance & Literacy work.
ABOUT Phyllis Lamhut
Phyllis Lamhut, choreographer of 100+ works, principal dancer for 20 years with Nikolais Dance Theater and Murray Louis Dance Company, performed globally on stages, television, and National Endowment for the Arts Dance Touring and Artists in Education programs. Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company was formed in 1970. She directed National Association of Regional Ballet Craft of Choreography Conference; National Canadian Composer/Choreographer Seminar; Dance and Music Workshop, Israel; Venice Biennale Move Man project; Carlisle Project New Impulses; and was Choreography Advisor/Editor for Joyce-Soho Residency. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from NYS Council on the Arts and NY Foundation for the Arts, Mary Flagler Charitable Trust, and Meet the Composer/Choreography Project. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded her 16 Choreography Fellowships. She was on the NYU Tisch School of the Arts faculty 1987-2022. In 2013, she was Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Bieneke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching from American Dance Festival. In 2022, American Dance Guild awarded her a Lifetime Achievement Award.
ABOUT Douglas Dunn
Douglas Dunn is a New York dancer and choreographer working since 1971. He was a member of Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1969-73), and a founding member of Grand Union, a troupe that rollicked from 1970 to 1976. Following duet, solo, and film work in the 1970s, he formed Douglas Dunn + Dancers in 1978. In 1980 he set Stravinsky’s Pulcinella on Paris Opera Ballet. He collaborates with poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers and playwrights. In 1998 he was awarded a NY Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for Sustained Achievement, and in 2008 was honored by the French government as Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He leads Douglas Dunn + Dancers, teaches Open Structures at New York University’s Steinhardt School, and presents salons at his studio at 541 Broadway, Manhattan. His book of collected writings, Dancer Out of Sight, is available at amazon.com.
ABOUT DANCE FOR DANCE’s HONOREES
Mark DeGarmo Dance has honored USA and global artists, educators, scholars, activists, and outstanding citizens. “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Awardees include educational theorist Maxine Green (2013); actor, writer, director, and Co-Founder of The Living Theatre Judith Malina (2014); classical ballet luminaries Oleg Briansky and Mireille Brianne (2015); dance author, critic, and educator Deborah Jowitt (2016); dancer, choreographer, and dance educator Patricia Aulestia (2017); Inaugural “Arts Education Advocate” Awardee opera singer, composer, arts education advocate, and Miss America 2019, Nia Imani Franklin; and “Dance Ambassador” 2023 Awardee dancer, teacher, director, filmmaker Christine Dakin (2023).