Dancing has never been so healthy!
Hip-shakers young and old wowed the crowd to raise money for breast cancer at the Brooklyn Dance Center’s Season of White show at Cavallaro Junior High School on Dec. 20. And the audience really synced up with the idea of giving back during the holidays, the head of the dance theater said.
“People liked the fact that they could give this gift around the holidays, it was as gift to the cause,” said Gail Kroog.
Pros with the Benjamin Briones Ballet and the all-senior Rhythm and Style tap-dancing troupe joined the center’s young ensemble dancers on stage. The dance center’s Belly Mystics group mesmerized the crowd with their midriffs, and belly dancer Gina Healy closed out each of the show’s two acts with folk medleys alongside singers Angello Olivieri and Bil Kurz. Dance center teacher and disc jockey Mr. Kid spun records during the show.
Organizers raised roughly $1,000 for the Brooklyn chapter of the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. A center dancer’s recent breast cancer diagnosis moved Kroog to donate proceeds from ticket sales, Kroog said.
The dancers rallied around the cause, Kroog said — Benjamin Briones Ballet and Rhythm and Style hopped right on board when they heard the performance would aid the fight against breast cancer, and that made for an electric show, Kroog said.
“Everyone — from the young dancers with the groups up to the tap dancers in their late 80s — they were all super enthusiastic about,” she said. “It was a great experience for everyone.”
