July 2020 | Page 6

Notwithstanding the rigors of classical ballet training, BBT also prides itself in serving students of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. Ascribing to creating a culture that is both nurturing and inclusive, BBT offers a wide range of dance classes. Pre-pandemic, its Adult Open Division offered over 30 classes a week, ranging from beginning to the advanced/professional level. “Our dance classes have people from the ages of three to their nineties,” Dekkers says.

The underlying philosophy of BBT asserts that everybody can dance. And dance they do. The popular class Rhythm & Motion is described as music + movement + spirit + sweat and sounds like Zumba on steroids. This high energy workout drawing from Latin, hip hop, African, and R&B is open to all. Movement classes for people affected by Parkinson’s disease are offered for free. Dance for PD® emerged from a collaboration between the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, a chapter of the National Parkinson Foundation. Dancing from chairs, from the barre or from a standing position becomes an exploration for dancers to use the power of their imagination to see, to hear, to touch, to feel and to learn a new expression of movement. The connection among body, mind and spirit endures—anyone who has a passion for movement becomes part of the BBT community of dancers.

ANYONE

who has a

passion

for movement becomes part of the BBT community of dancers.

Robert Dekkers, Sandrine Cassini, Christian Squires