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.
Place your bids for the 2025 Silent Auction here.
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 supported our programs.
Dance for Dance for Social Change 2025 is our 38th Anniversary Celebration and Dance Party of the Year! We will feature our 38-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 internationally renowned classical ballet teachers and practitioners, Andra Corvino and Ernesta Corvino with our “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Award 2025. The evening includes food and drinks, music and dancing, a silent auction, photo opportunities, an honoree, and performances. Dance for Dance for Social Change 38th Anniversary is held at St. Mary’s Church on the Lower East Side on May 8th, 2025, 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 2025 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.
2025
Lisa and Dick Cashin
PJ and Dawn Dearden
Sarah Finlayson and Lindley DeGarmo
Marianne and David Egri
Rebecca Ervey*
Lawrence P. Holodak*
Kathleen Kheel*
Lara and Darius Mehraban
The Kyle J. Mulrooney Foundation
Lindsay O’Reilly
The Rothfeld Family Foundation
Lisa Shaari*
Barbara Sherman
Nick Velazquez*
*MDD Board Members
In Formation
NYC Council Member Alexa Avilés, District 38
NYC Council Member Chris Banks, District 42
NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher, District 3
NYC Council Member Gale Brewer, District 6
NYC Council Member Farah Louis, District 45
NYC Council Member Sandy Nurse, District 37
NYC Council Member Keith Powers, District 4
NYC Council Member Carlina Rivera, District 2
NYC Council Member Dr. Nantasha Williams, District 27
NYC Council Member Julie Won, District 26
NY Assembly Member Lester Chang, District 49
NY Assembly Member Brian Cunningham, District 43
NY Assembly Member Michael Novakov, District 45
NY State Senator Nathalia Fernandez, District 34
NY State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, District 47
NY State Senator Brian Kavanagh, District 27
NY State Senator Liz Krueger, District 28
In Formation
Marie Baker-Lee
Isabel Barton
Clarence Brooks
Dian Dong Chen
Christine Dakin
Grazia Della-Terza
Douglas Dunn
Ara Fitzgerald
Julia Gleich
Beth Holodak
Marija Krtolica
Phyllis Lamhut & Robert Small
Anabella Lenzu
Barbara Mahler
Audrey Ross
Dr. Andrea Mantell Seidel
Ani Udovicki
In Formation
Mark DeGarmo Dance’s DANCE FOR DANCE (D4D) FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 2025 honors internationally renowned classical ballet teachers and practitioners, Andra Corvino and Ernesta Corvino with our “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Award 2025 presented by Gerry Sheridan and Catherine Green Anthony. Thursday, May 8, 2025, 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 Andra Corvino
ANDRA CORVINO has had over 50 years of teaching experience. A member of the ballet faculty of The Juilliard School from 1995 to 2014, Ms. Corvino has had the opportunity to work with outstanding institutions such as The Metropolitan Opera, Carmel Bach Festival, The Kennedy Center, York University (Toronto), Montclair State College, Sarah Lawrence College, SUNY/Purchase among others. Co-director of her own school in New York City for 25 years, The Dance Circle, Ms. Corvino had the satisfaction of developing and influencing many young artists. Having started her performing career as a child, Ms. Corvino had the privilege of serving as soloist and principal dancer for many companies including The Maryland Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Ernesta Corvino’s Dance Circle Company.
ABOUT Ernesta Corvino
ERNESTA CORVINO, daughter of the acclaimed ballet master Alfredo Corvino, has lived and breathed dance since her inception. Classically trained at an early age, Ms. Corvino has spent the past 50 years performing ballet, modern, character and baroque dance all over the world. For the past 40 years she has combined teaching open classes in N.Y.C. with choreographing for and performing with her own company, Ernesta Corvino’s Dance Circle, as well as giving workshops and courses at universities and schools internationally. She is currently ballet master of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and teaches both virtually and in person at her own studio in Norwalk, Connecticut.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
ABOUT Gerry Sheridan
GERRY SHERIDAN is an actress and writer who has appeared in independent films,
commercials, music videos, and theater including Long Wharf, LaMaMa, The Puerto
Rican Traveling Theater, The Medicine Show and Expanded Arts. Her plays have been published by Samuel French, Applause Books, Smith and Kraus and Desert Road Publishing. Awards for her plays and a film of her play include: Winner of the Critic’s Choice Award at the Samuel French Short Play Festival, Audience Choice Award at the Thurrock International Film Festival in the UK, The Accolade, Film, Television, TV and Videography Awards – Award of Merit, and McLaren National Comedy Writing Competition-Honorable Mention. Gerry’s blog Cranky Actress was chosen as Top 20 Actor Blog by Feedspot. Gerry is very happy to be part of honoring Ernesta Corvino and Andra Corvino. They are extraordinary teachers and wonderful humans.
ABOUT Catherine Green Anthony
CATHERINE GREEN ANTHONY has been a student of Alfredo Corvino, Andra Corvino and Ernesta Corvino since the late 1980s, and she is a proud former company member of Ernesta Corvino’s Dance Circle Company. Following an introduction by Ernesta Corvino, Ms. Green became a faculty member in the Hunter College Dance Department where she taught for twenty-five years. Her ballet classes at Hunter Dance were strongly inspired and informed by the Corvino approach; as Ms. Green developed as a teacher, she found herself repeatedly simplifying and returning to Corvino ideas.
In addition to working with Dance Circle Company, Ms. Green has performed with dance companies including Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Ballet Met, Milwaukee Ballet, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Ballet Mink Colbert and Brooklyn Ballet. She holds an MA in Dance Education from NYU, a BFA in Dance from Purchase College and a high school diploma from North Carolina School of the Arts. As a ballet teacher and dance administrator, she served as a Hunter College Dance Department undergraduate advisor, worked as a ballet instructor for Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp, was a teaching artist within the New York City public school system and served as Elevate Outreach Director for Brooklyn Ballet. With Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and Ballet Mink Colbert, Ms. Green performed and taught in over 30 states and internationally.
Ms. Green is delighted to share in honoring Ernesta Corvino and Andra Corvino; they have been the most important teachers and mentors in her career.
