Where and How to Shake Your End-of-Summer Groove Thing

So long, Summer Fridays. As responsibilities, class schedules, and the hunching of shoulders over computers begin to creep back in, be sure to take advantage of the final dance events the City of New York Parks & Recreation has to offer. There’s a smattering of performances, open classes, and special events still to take place, and they’re all free. It ain’t over till it’s over! Details on everything listed below can be found at www.nycgovparks.org.

Embrace your inner meringue god or goddess this very night with High Line Live!: ¡Arriba!, where you can dance the night away to live Latin music on the High Line, right under the Standard Hotel, at West 13th Street, from 7 – 9 pm. Could you really ask for a better dance backdrop?

The Limón Dance Company gets in the groove with an open class in Bryant Park on Saturday, August 25. Former and current company members welcome all levels and ages to a fun-filled morning on the Lawn, at 10 am. If you’re a first-timer and find yourself falling down a lot, don’t worry—just blame it on the Limón fall-and-recovery technique. (And if you can’t make it this Saturday, it’ll take place again on September 1 and 8, same time and place.)

SummerStage winds down its season with Witness Relocation’s I’m Going to Make a Small Incision Behind Your Ear to Check and See If You’re Actually Human REDUX (whew, what a mouthful!) at East River Park on August 28, 29, and 30, all at 8 pm. The piece’s 30 different segments are reordered every night, based on audience lottery results, and the performers themselves decide on the spot who gets to dance in each segment. It’s mayhem- and multimedia-filled madness.

Sam Pinkleton and dancers in
I’m Going To Make… Photo courtesy of Witness Relocation

Work off a couple of those ice cream sundaes you’ve been indulging in this summer with Summer on the Hudson’s West Coast Swing dance party in West Harlem Piers Park on Saturday, September 1, from 6 – 9 pm. West Coast Swing is a hybrid of lindy hop, east coast swing, and salsa, but there’s always room for some good, old-fashioned improvisation. Get there by 7, and you’ll get a free 45-minute dance lesson.

If you’ve been missing the weekly installments of the Harlem Meer Performance Festival, don’t fret: The grand finale is on Sunday, September 2 with Ballet Hispanico’s second company, BHdos. At the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center (inside the park at 110th Street between Lenox and Fifth Avenues), audiences will be treated to a Central Park–inspired performance and will even get the chance to join in.

Summer’s not over just yet! —Rachel Rizzuto

Dancers in
Witness Relocation’s
I’m Going To Make… Photo courtesy of Witness Relocation