Ailey Extension Celebrates NYC Dance Week With 30 Free Classes

Ailey Extension celebrates NYC Dance Week, a citywide festival from June 15-24, by offering 30 free dance and fitness classes for new students*. Continuing through Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Lincoln Center engagement June 14-18, free classes will be held at The Ailey Studios - home to the world-renowned Ailey dancers - featuring nearly all of Ailey Extension's 25 techniques, many taught with live accompaniment.

To kick off the festival, join Ailey at Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza on Wednesday, June 14 at 6 p.m. for a free jazz dance class. Ailey Extension instructor Jeffrey Bynum will teach an exhilarating, heart-pumping outdoor class for all ages and levels, sure to get participants excited for Ailey's performances inspired by the sounds of jazz. No event registration is required for this public class.

The celebration continues at The Ailey Studios from Wednesday, June 15 through Saturday, June 24 with three free classes offered each day, including Horton (the modern dance technique seen in Alvin Ailey's must-see masterpiece Revelations), West African, Ballet, Samba, Masala Bhangra Workout, and Afro-Cuban. The celebration will culminate on Saturday, June 24 with Katherine Jimenez's NY Style Mambo class, free for all students (new and returning). Katherine will teach the fundamentals of mambo, a flirtatious Cuban dance made up of points, kicks, exaggerated hip movements, and sharp quick steps.

Stepping from the studio to the stage, Ailey Extension students can see the techniques offered during NYC Dance Week performed during Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Lincoln Center season. In addition to watching Horton technique performed throughout Revelations, audiences will see influences of jazz, theatre dance, and NY Style Mambo in Billy Wilson's The Winter in Lisbon; contemporary dance in Hope Boykin's r-Evolution, Dream., Mauro Bigonzetti's Deep, Johan Inger's Walking Mad, or artistic director Robert Battle's Mass and Ella; and Afro-Cuban Folkloric rhythms in Kyle Abraham's Untitled America.

To view the complete Ailey Extension NYC Dance Week schedule, visit our website here. A downloadable NYC Dance Week voucher must be presented for all classes at The Ailey Studios, available here.

*New students may only take one free class; returning students will receive a bonus class with a purchase of a 10-class card.

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Ailey Extension is located at The Joan Weill Center for Dance at 405 West 55th Street (at 9th Avenue).

About NYC Dance Week

Now in its sixth year, NYC Dance Week collaborates with noted studios in New York City to celebrate the joy and diversity of dance with an exhilarating 10-day festival of FREE dance, fitness and wellness classes. The event engages the community and families to experience dance, encouraging them to live active, healthy lifestyles. The organization moves beyond traditional dance forms to teach participants how all dance genres benefit mind, body and spirit. The event is held annual in June at a variety of venues throughout New York City and serves thousands. For more information, visit nycdanceweek.org.

About Ailey Extension

Since its inception in 2005, Ailey Extension has fulfilled Mr. Ailey's life-long commitment of bringing dance to everyone by offering "real classes for real people." Ailey Extension offers over 25 different dance and fitness techniques such as Horton, Ballet, Masala Bhangra, West African, Samba, Jazz, Zumba, House and Hip-Hop. Over 125,000 people have taken classes at Ailey's home, New York's largest building dedicated to dance, where dancers of all levels and walks of life can learn and be inspired - body, mind, and spirit!