Move What Matters.

During her recovery, she realized she needed dance for the art and community, not just competition. She started exploring choreography, and when her mom suggested auditioning for Urbanity's Contemporary Summer Intensive, she said yes...not knowing what to expect.

She was accepted, completed all three weeks, and found herself challenged in ways she hadn't been before: lean into technique, artistry, and movement quality. The Intensive also gave her a window into what a real career in dance could look like. "The Intensive not only provided excellent training, but also gave me a glimpse into choreography, performance, and what it could look like to be a working dancer in the industry." That experience gave her the confidence to start her own dance team at the age of 15. She has since choreographed 16 pieces and earned a spot in the Junior Apprentice program within the Urbanity 2 company, where she recently completed her first showcase.and communities who need us most.

Meet our partners at Pine Street Inn, New England's largest homeless services provider. Over the past year, Pine Street Inn has welcomed Urbanity's Movement Meets program into their shelter, bringing trauma-informed, adaptive dance classes directly to their guests. The instructor comes to them. The class meets each participant exactly where they are. "It is one of the most inclusive external programs that thoughtfully considers the ability and experience of the participants," says Matt Ferrer, Program Director at Pine Street Inn. The impact, he says, has been overwhelmingly positive.

For people navigating homelessness, joy and creativity aren't extras. They're essential. Movement Meets gives guests a chance to step out of their circumstances for an hour, into a safe and uplifting space where movement does what only movement can.

Pine Street Inn's story is what Move What Matters is all about. Programs like Movement Meets only reach the communities that need them most when they're offered free of charge. Your gift makes sure those barriers come down.

Meet Eyleen and her son Eyce, longtime members of the Urbanity family. Eyleen's older children came through Urbanity's classes first, and when it was time for Eyce to explore music and movement, she knew exactly where to bring him. For the past year, the two of them have been showing up to Baby +1 class together.

For Eyleen, class is more than structure in a busy week with multiple kids at home. It's dedicated one-on-one time with Eyce, a chance to sync up, share something together, and carry that joy back home afterward. It's also a community where families from all different backgrounds come together. "Urbanity has ultimately become a family for us, especially during these crucial learning years."

Eyleen and Eyce's story is what Move What Matters is all about. What Eyleen hopes Eyce carries with him as he grows is exactly what Urbanity was built to offer: comfort around new people, openness to connection, and the kind of social confidence that comes from being welcomed into community early. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because donors like you make sure Urbanity is there for every family, at every stage.

Rachel Linsky's relationship with Urbanity began when she was a teenager at our Summer Intensive. Years later, she came back as an intern, then as an educator, and now, as a resident artist with Urbanity X, our professional artist development program.

This season, Rachel is premiering Looking Back, Stepping Forward, an evening-length collaboration with Ezekiel's Wheels Klezmer Band that weaves Yiddish folk dance into contemporary practice and reflects on diasporic identity. It's the kind of bold, ambitious work that requires a long-term creative home, and Urbanity is proud to be that home.

Rachel's story is what Move What Matters is all about. Her growth from teenager to resident artist is only possible because of an institution that invests in artists across decades. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because donors like you make sure Urbanity is here for every artist, at every stage.

Meet Amaya, who has been part of the Urbanity community for six years, since she was in Primary Two. She has grown up in our studios, dancing through the pandemic when classes moved to Zoom, and continuing every step of the way as she became a teenager. Today, she is a member of our Teen Leadership Program, an Access for All scholar, and a Teacher's Assistant who shares what she has learned with the next generation of young dancers.

But Amaya's story is bigger than her dance résumé. Urbanity is her community. "It's like a second home," she says. "I come to Urbanity and I spend so much time there. I know everyone, everyone knows me. We're all really close."

That sense of belonging has carried her through some of her hardest moments. As a young queer person navigating her mental health, Amaya has found in Urbanity what she hasn't always found elsewhere: a place to be fully herself. "As a young queer person, Urbanity has felt like a space where I can just be me. I don't have that in a lot of other places."

A great deal of that belonging traces back to her teachers. Amaya has been with Miss Haley since Primary Two ballet, including the COVID Zoom classes when she was the only student to show up and the lessons became one-on-one. "She's been really there for me throughout everything. I feel like she's always rooting for me."

Amaya's story is what Move What Matters is all about. In her own words: "I'm part of the Access for All scholarship program, and Urbanity has really given access to everyone. They allow everyone the opportunity to dance, no matter where they come from."

Tuition alone doesn't cover the cost of welcoming every dancer who wants to join us. Through Access for All and our Teen Leadership Program, Urbanity invests in young people like Amaya, an investment that totals $200,000 a year.

Meet Rachel de Molina, a member of Urbanity 2, our adult company for dancers balancing careers and creative lives. She started dancing at age 3 in Charlotte, trained in ballet, modern, and jazz through her teens, and earned a dance minor in college. But after moving to Boston for grad school, she slowly drifted away from a consistent practice. By the time the pandemic hit, she had stopped entirely. For nearly a decade, she carried what she calls the grief of believing her life as a dancer was over.

Then in 2024, she found Urbanity's adult sessions. Encouraged by her teacher Genny Mudd and her fellow students, she auditioned for Urbanity 2 and stepped fully back into dance for the first time in ten years. This season, she choreographed her own work for the first time. "Urbanity has not only reconnected me to dance, but also expanded my growth beyond where I thought I could go."

Rachel's story is what Move What Matters is all about. For Rachel, Move What Matters speaks to the full spectrum of healing that comes from dance, the way movement carries our emotions, our thoughts, and our connection to community in an increasingly disembodied world. It exists because donors like you make sure Urbanity is here for every dancer, at every stage of life.

Meet our partners at Afrobeats Dance Boston, founded in 2017 and rooted in the music and movement traditions of the African diaspora. Their journey with Urbanity began in 2019, when they joined our Artist in Residence program, receiving free studio space as part of Urbanity's commitment to uplifting BIPOC-led artists and collectives across Boston. What started as a residency has grown into something more enduring: a full co-location partnership, with both organizations now officially sharing Urbanity Headquarters at 1180 Washington Street.

Our Artist in Residence program is built on a simple belief: that no studio space should go unused, and that sharing resources makes the entire Boston arts community stronger. Over Urbanity's history, we've offered more than 1,000 hours of free and subsidized space to artists, giving emerging companies and collectives a foundation to grow on, often during the years when access to space matters most.

Afrobeats Dance Boston's story is what Move What Matters is all about. When small arts organizations have a home, they can grow. When they grow, the whole city's dance community grows with them. Boston now has more stylistic and cultural choices for dance study because two organizations chose to share one home, and that's exactly the kind of impact your gift makes possible.

Meet Brittani LeBell Russo, an adult dancer and work-study student who has been part of Urbanity for the past two years. Brittani actually found Urbanity over a decade ago when she first moved to the Boston area, looking for a way to stay connected to her community after work. The timing wasn't right then. But two years ago, a close friend invited her to try an adult hip hop class together, and she hasn't looked back since.

What started with hip hop has flourished into tap, contemporary, and a work-study role at the front desk, where she admins a youth Primary Hip Hop class on Mondays before stepping into her own adult class right after. "Being able to first serve the studio and serve the dancers in an admin position, then step into class as a dancer, shrug off that admin role, it's a whole other experience. It's such a release. It's like my own little oasis."

For Brittani, the heart of Urbanity is the people. "It has helped me come out of my own shell and be more comfortable in my own skin. It's reignited that curious and more extroverted side of myself." She talks about her first class with Priscilla, the welcome from teachers like Miranda Lawson who helped her find her confidence as a dancer, and the friendships that have grown out of class after class.

Brittani's story is what Move What Matters is all about. "You're literally helping to move the needle on something that matters," she says about the campaign. "There are such great scholarship opportunities that really make these classes accessible for everybody. Even the little bit you're able to give opens up those doors for people who might not otherwise be able to walk into the studio."

Spaces like this, where adults can find their way back to dance, build community, and feel like they belong, don't happen by accident. They happen because donors like you make sure Urbanity is here for every dancer.

Meet Rafi Rivera, one of the instructors behind Urbanity's Dance with Parkinson's program. Rafi's journey with this work spans four years, including a two-year apprenticeship before he became a lead teacher. Today, he leads classes at Urbanity and at IBA in the South End, where he teaches in Spanish to Spanish-speaking elders living with Parkinson's.

For Rafi, offering this class in Spanish at IBA is about more than dance. "The older Spanish-speaking population who move to the U.S. tend to feel lonely, especially if their kids and family members move away. This class creates community and gives people the opportunity to move with rhythm and coordination."

Rafi's story is what Move What Matters is all about. "Today's modern medicine keeps you alive with lots of symptoms to manage, but movement gives you the opportunity to age as gracefully as possible." Programs like Dance with Parkinson's, and partnerships like the one with IBA, don't happen by accident. They happen because donors like you make sure Urbanity can show up for the people who need it most.