Dance for Dance for Social Change is MDD’s community celebration! Our annual event raises critical awareness and funds needed to support our mission and programs.
Tickets, Donations, and Sponsorships can be found here.
The Silent Auction 2025 is coming soon. See 2024 bids here.
Donations by Check: Note that our building in NYC is under construction and our mailbox is inaccessible at this time. Mail checks to P.O. Box 218, Ancram, NY 12502-0218.
We use dance to engage and empower NYC students through performance and education. For over a decade, MDD has produced the annual event with so much volunteer and in-kind support that direct costs pre-COVID were less than 5% of gross revenue with 95% going to programs. In COVID and with a virtual event, 100% of funds supported our programs.
Dance for Dance for Social Change 2025 is our 38th Anniversary Celebration and Dance Party of the Year! We will feature our 38-year commitment to bring impactful evidence-based dance education to disenfranchised and under-resourced communities and public schools across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. We will honor internationally renowned classical ballet teachers and practitioners, Andra Corvino and Ernesta Corvino with our “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Award 2025. The evening includes food and drinks, music and dancing, a silent auction, photo opportunities, an honoree, and performances. Dance for Dance for Social Change 38th Anniversary is held at St. Mary’s Church on the Lower East Side on May 8th, 2025, 6:30-9:00 PM.
- Fun! Diversity! and Inclusivity! are traditional hallmarks of our event for more than 10 years.
- Ours is a family-style party where everyone is welcome and encouraged to join us!
Disclaimer for 2025 attendees:
*Photographs and/or video will be taken during the dance party.
By taking part in this event you grant the event organizers full rights to use the images resulting from the photography/video filming, and any reproductions or adaptations of the images for fundraising, publicity or other purposes to help achieve the group’s aims. This might include (but is not limited to), the right to use them in their printed and online publicity, social media, press releases and funding applications.
2025
PJ and Dawn Dearden
Sarah Finlayson and Lindley DeGarmo
Rebecca Ervey*
Lawrence P. Holodak*
Kathleen Kheel*
Lara and Darius Mehraban
Lindsay O’Reilly
The Rothfeld Family Foundation
Lisa Shaari*
Barbara Sherman
Nick Velazquez*
*MDD Board Members
In Formation
NYC Council Member Alexa Avilés, District 38
NYC Council Member Gale Brewer, District 6
NYC Council Member Farah Louis, District 45
NYC Council Member Keith Powers, District 4
NYC Council Member Dr. Nantasha Williams, District 27
NYC Council Member Julie Won, District 26
NY Assembly Member Michael Novakov, District 45
NY State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, District 47
NY State Senator Brian Kavanagh, District 27
In Formation
Marie Baker-Lee
Clarence Brooks
Christine Dakin
Ara Fitzgerald
In Formation
Mark DeGarmo Dance’s DANCE FOR DANCE (D4D) FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 2025 honors internationally renowned classical ballet teachers and practitioners, Andra Corvino and Ernesta Corvino with our “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Award 2025. Thursday, May 8, 2025, 6:30-9:00 PM, St. Mary’s Church, NYC’s Lower East Side. D4D raises awareness & funds for NYC Public Elementary School Dance & Literacy work.
ABOUT Andra Corvino
ANDRA CORVINO has had over 50 years of teaching experience. A member of the ballet faculty of The Juilliard School from 1995 to 2014, Ms. Corvino has had the opportunity to work with outstanding institutions such as The Metropolitan Opera, Carmel Bach Festival, The Kennedy Center, York University (Toronto), Montclair State College, Sarah Lawrence College, SUNY/Purchase among others. Co-director of her own school in New York City for 25 years, The Dance Circle, Ms. Corvino had the satisfaction of developing and influencing many young artists. Having started her performing career as a child, Ms. Corvino had the privilege of serving as soloist and principal dancer for many companies including The Maryland Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Ernesta Corvino’s Dance Circle Company.
ABOUT Ernesta Corvino
ERNESTA CORVINO, daughter of the acclaimed ballet master Alfredo Corvino, has lived and breathed dance since her inception. Classically trained at an early age, Ms. Corvino has spent the past 50 years performing ballet, modern, character and baroque dance all over the world. For the past 40 years she has combined teaching open classes in N.Y.C. with choreographing for and performing with her own company, Ernesta Corvino’s Dance Circle, as well as giving workshops and courses at universities and schools internationally. She is currently ballet master of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and teaches both virtually and in person at her own studio in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Coming soon