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HOW
TO JOIN:
Join any class at any time at your level. No registration required. You
can attend a single class or purchase a 10 class card which saves you
$1 on each class.
DIRECTIONS:
Trains: 4,5,6,N,R,L to 14th Street Union Square. We are
located One block away from Union Sq. Park at 37 East 18th St 7th floor.
between Broadway & Park Ave.
WORKSTUDY
:
As a workstudy student, you will work for DDDC in exchange for free classes.
Applications available at the center. |
RATES:
Single Dance Class: 1 1/2 hrs. $15
10 Dance Class Card:
1 1/2 hrs. $140
Single Drum Class: 1 hr. $15, 1 1/2 hrs. $18
Drum / Instrument Rental: $4/hr.
Children 3-11 attending adult classes: $11
CHILDREN'S
PROGRAM 3-16:
Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $35/per child -$25.00 if semester/year
is paid in full at time of registration. Single class: $25
Winter Session Sept 30- Dec 16: $200 one class/week
Spring Session Jan 6- June 9: $350
one class/week
Click for more DDDKids info... |
CLASS
LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS:
Classes without any level description are considered intermediate to advanced
Beginner 1 Basic(Beg-Basic): For new students with
no dance background or with up to 9 months of dance experience.
Intermediate(Inter): For new students with a dance background
or for those who have attended Beginner Basic classes for 9 months or
more.
Intermediate
/ Advanced(Int-Adv): These classes are more challenging, taught
faster with more intricate steps.
-FULLY
MIRRORED
-MEN'S&LADIES DRESSING ROOMS/SHOWERS |
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VOTED
NY BEST DANCE STUDIO 2003
BY THE VILLAGE VOICE
Purge your mind of any associations between the word "dance"
and flashbacks to frilly tutus, torturous pointe shoes, anorexia, or embarrassing
recitals. Djoniba Dance & Drum Centre is the type of place to get
barefoot and relaxed. Explore Djimbe drum rhythms, get into the Haitian
groove, pick up belly dance moves, or discover Brazilian capoeira. An
hour-and-a-half class costs $13 to $16: a small price to pay for transport
to another part of the globe, to cultures and vibes way beyond leotards.
37 East 18th Street, 7th floor, 212-477-3464
VOTED
THE BEST OF NEW YORK 2001
BY NEW YORK MAGAZINE
Whether you're hopping to the quick-paced drumming
in Senegalese dance or undulating your torso to the Caribic sounds of
haitian folkloric music, your heart (and pelvis) will get one of the best
workouts it's ever had at Djoniba Dance and Drum Centre. As soon as the
elevator doors open, the live drumming transports you to early Cuba, Haiti,
Western Africa, and Brazil through various levels of dance and drumming
classes for adults and children from 3 to 16 ($100 for a ten class card).
Even Julia Roberts and sex and the City's Kim Cattrall make regular appearances.
The center also host an annual two-week trip to Senegal in july, where
you can continue your dance-and-drumming training and relax on white-sand
beaches in the place where it all began.
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VOTED
NY
BEST DANCE STUDIO
2000
BY NEW YORK PRESS
We
got the Rhythm. We've gone to several other dance
studios in the city. We've
tried ballet and hiphop and capoeira and butoh, where week after week
in an "artist's space" The Master told our class to
"take 10 minutes to walk accross the floor" while recording
us on a G4 PowerBook. What ended up bothering us most about these classes
was that they made us feel like the beginner we were.
What we love about Djoniba is that we don't have to wait until we're good
to enjoy ourselves. At Djoniba, we're dancers, have wildly manic
delusions of fucking it all and going off somewhere to do it
for real. We get so exhilarated with ourselves when we move with anything
like grace that we half-wish there was a mom outside watching and pumping
her fists with pride – that's what Djoniba does to the sensitive
parts of our brain.
The hour-and-a-half African dance classes are split into two parts: first
we learn the routine and then we're sent off toward a row of drummers
seated at the end of the room. When we reach them, we bow. The teacher
stands in front of the lines and shows us a new move, and we hoof it down
the room and back to start. A Carolee Schneeman experience – multitudes
of sweating, stretching, squishy bodies, and we with our joy and our exercise-endorphins.
Djoniba offers a host of African dance classes, including Congolese, Senegalese
and African, as well as karate, hiphop, belly dancing and more.
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NEW
YORK TIMES
The
Energy of Percussion. Students
enter the small Djoniba Dance and Drum Center burdened by their days,
then leave an hour and a half later re-energized by the rhythms of African-inspired
dancing. The adult classes include live percussionists. The dancing, choreographed
by the owner, Abdullah Djoniba Mouflet, a Martinique native, involves
syncopated footwork, lots of jumping and angular mortions.
"It is not hard to pick up," insisted Michelle Chang, 24, a
communication assistant. "You hear the drumming and translate the
beat into your movements."
There are more than 60 adult classes a week, including ones in West Africa,
Haitian, Congolese, Cuban, flamenco and hip-hop dance. The model Roshumba
is a regular, as is a group of Hasidic men.
CLIENTELE It is a down-to-earth crowd, with women outnumbering
men by 4 to 1. Classes are taken barefoot, and some women wear African-print
skirts.
SERVICES
AND EQUIPMENT There are four dance studios, the largest of which
holds 70 people and has several big viewing windows. Drums and musical
instruments in a glass case are available for rent or sale. A small boutique
sells African fabrics and clothing.
DECOR
The style is Afrocentric. The walls are covered with West African and
West Indian art.
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