Dance and Learn About New Cultures with Boogie Woogie Wednesdays at Staten Island Children's Museum

Summer nights are heating up! Beginning Wednesday, July 5 and continuing every week through August 30, spend your Wednesday evenings learning about and dancing along to traditional music from a different culture each week, at the Staten Island Children's Museum's Boogie Woogie Wednesdays!

Sponsored in part by the Staten Island Delegation to the NYC Council and Dunkin Donuts, Boogie Woogie Wednesday, a free outdoor (weather permitting!) Wednesday evening music and dance program is a great way to sneak some family time into a busy week. Why not pack a picnic dinner, dine under the tent on the Meadow and then dance the night away?

5:00 p.m. Free admission begins and exhibits open for play

6:30 p.m. Snacks (while supplies last) and exhibits begin staggered closings

7:00 p.m. All exhibits close and dancing begins!

8:00 p.m. Museum closes

The season opens on July 5th with crowd favorite Mikhail Smirnov and his Russian dance and music ensemble Barynya and it closes August 30th with another popular veteran performer in the series: Walter Rutledge and the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theater performing Broadway Style Dance. Also returning this year are Anna Pipoyan, belly dancer, Dawn Daniel's Irish Step Dance Team, The Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, The New York Chinese Cultural Center, The Harambee Dance Company performing African dance, and Johnea Dupont of the Skin Dance Company showcasing American Hip Hop.

The summer line up is as follows:

July 5 Russian Traditional

July 12 Belly Dancing

July 19 Irish Stepping

July 26 Mexican Folk Dance

August 2 Chinese Traditional

August 9 African Dance

August 16 American Hip Hop

August 23 Sri Lankan Dance

August 30 Broadway-Style Jazz Dance

For more information about Boogie Woogie Wednesday, visit www.sichildrensmuseum.org or phone 718-273-2060.

The mission of the Staten Island Children's Museum is to nurture the creativity and curiosity natural to all children, to recognize and celebrate different learning styles, and to demonstrate vividly that learning can be exciting and fun. The Children's Museum is committed to achieving these goals through programming that emphasizes direct and authentic hands-on experiences conducted in an environment that is welcoming as well as aesthetically pleasing. The Children's Museum encourages participation by visitors of all abilities and endeavors to reach beyond its walls to serve as an educational resource for the members of our diverse community, especially families and schools.

The Staten Island Children's Museum houses eleven hands-on interactive exhibitions that are designed to give children first-hand knowledge of the world. They include cooperative as well as independent learning experiences, fine and gross motor activities, and work on multiple levels to accommodate significant variations in developmental and cognitive skills within our audience. The exhibitions range in scope from role-playing on a refurbished 1946 fire truck, to an in-depth exploration of arthropoda, to exploration as a context for science concepts, to theater as a vehicle for self-expression, to home construction from excavation to roofing; to an outdoor nature exhibit with STEAM experiences. The Children's Museum's location on the grounds of a former retirement home for merchant seamen inspired two exhibits with maritime themes. Its most recent exhibits are Sensory Imaging, exploring the impact of touch and sight and the Kidstory Kiosk where children can record stories about their day and share them on social media.