Movement Meets

Where movement meets healing.

Movement Meets is Urbanity’s rapidly expanding program of customized dance classes that “meet” a life-altering physical or mental challenge through embodied movement. Classes are designed to uplift community members who share various life experiences. Participants draw from the power of movement through styles such as freestyle, contemporary, and street dance to communicate, connect, empathize, and “meet” their challenge to find healing.

POPULATIONS SERVED
Movement Meets classes include those tailored for people experiencing breast cancer, stroke, psychosis, addiction, homelessness, aging, and Parkinson’s Disease. Participants are guided by a dance facilitator through expressive exercises geared to improve one’s quality of life and diagnostic outcome, building community and finding connection with others, all in a joyful and uplifting environment.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Program workshops are offered in partnership with Boston area community organizations and are tailored to a range of locations such as Urbanity’s dance studios, hospitals, and community centers. Whether a weekly class or one-time pop-up session, Movement Meets’ customized curriculum addresses the physical and emotional impacts of the shared group experience.

IN HOUSE CLASSES OFFERED

TEACHING MODEL
Urbanity selects a Teaching Artist for each program who is personally connected to the challenge and provides them with specialized training to ensure they are teaching inclusive, trauma-informed classes and are able to make the adaptations necessary for the specific community with which they are working.

FREE VOLUNTEER TRAINING
Urbanity is partnering with the Office of the Arts at Harvard to provide Movement Meets training and teaching opportunities for Harvard undergraduate students. More information on this partnership can be found here.

Dance with Parkinson’s

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Dance with Parkinson’s (DWP) is a weekly class at Urbanity studios for people with Parkinson’s Disease and their caregivers. This joyful class, accompanied by live music, has been operating at Urbanity since 2013 after Founder Betsi Graves trained in the Dance for PD® model in New York City. The class is structured to meet the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease with exercises designed for expansion, cross-body opposition, balance, posture, gait, facial expression, mirroring, stretching, and brain dances. DWP has since reached hundreds of participants by streaming into hospital rooms during the pandemic, performances at renowned local venues such as the Boston Hatch Shell with the Landmarks Orchestra, and honored beloved members at their celebrations of life. Today, DWP has grown to include a second spring section in Harvard Square in April-June, and a biweekly class in Spanish at IBA Boston—and holds potential to grow even further with continued support, including a need for an offering in Chinatown in Mandarin, and another group in Brookline, MA. In 2022, the program’s success inspired Betsi and instructor Dr. Anna Krotinger to reimagine how this model could expand to improve the outcome for people with other diagnoses, and thus DWP became the flagship example for the other Movement Meets tracks Urbanity offers today.

Age Thrive

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A weekly, open-to-all Senior Dance class at Urbanity, Age Thrive aims to physically maintain and build strength, mobility, elasticity, neuroplasticity and flexibility—but it’s much more than that. The class provides a space for seniors to find connection and build community in a joy-filled environment, reminiscing with music from the past while laughing with the latest party groove challenge. Taught in a Modern and Authentic Jazz style, this class provides seated, neuro, and floor modifications to meet the needs of each student.

Mental Health

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Currently on hiatus as we seek new sources of funding, your donation can make the difference to get us up and running again! This monthly class is offered in partnership with McLean Hospital in Cambridge, a leading psychiatric hospital dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families impacted by mental illness. This partnership brings dance classes to an inpatient psychosis ward and to an outpatient program focused on mental illness recovery. Because many psychiatric medications can cause parkinsonian symptoms such as tremors, rigidity, slowness, and bradykinesia, the curriculum is adapted from the Dance with Parkinson’s model to provide physical and emotional benefits to McLean patients, using the healing expression, joy, and creativity that movement and music brings.

Cancer Recovery

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A weekly class offered in partnership with Mass General Brigham and Dana Farber Cancer Institute as part of their wellness offerings, these classes emphasize upper-body chest, shoulder, spine and core activation through focused cross-lateral and lymphatic techniques, all in a spirit of encouragement, hope, and community connection. Classes are also part of an ongoing study assessing change in outcomes related to quality of life, pain, fatigue, and body image in breast cancer survivors with persistent post-surgical pain who participate in a 12-week dance intervention.

Pediatric Wellness

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In partnership with Boston Community Pediatrics (BCP) whose mission is to bring equity to pediatric healthcare, the Pediatric Wellness track is focused on providing free, bilingual movement exploration classes to young children with their caregivers, and teens from BCP. Seventy percent of the youth served are living in poverty, are food or housing insecure, struggle with mental health, and/or come from primarily Spanish-speaking homes. Through this 8-week summer workshop series, Urbanity presents dance as a tool for community connection and improving physical and mental wellness.

Stroke Recovery

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In partnership with Spaulding Adaptive Sports Rehabilitation, this monthly adaptive workshop includes exercises aimed to build strength, mobility, coordination, expression, and gait for individuals in stroke recovery. Courses challenge lateral and cross-lateral movements to build  balance and core resilience, while playful exercises explore facial expression, fine motor gesture, and choreographic work activates memory, mirror neurons and neuroplasticity. Modifications are offered for participants unable to move legs or arms, and/or those dancing in wheelchairs, walkers, and canes.

In 2026, an angel donor could help propel a promising new partnership with Mass General Brigham neurologists interested in creating an original adaptive dance class for people who have experienced stroke. This partnership would allow Urbanity to work with doctors to research how movement exercise can improve outcomes for this community.

Addiction Recovery

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Planned for 2026, this weekly class will support individuals in recovery from drugs and/or alcohol. Director Betsi Graves has experience leading movement workshops for this community, grounding the curriculum in the importance of fellowship hope, and fun on the path to a substance-free life. Classes will foster encouragement and camaraderie, rewire an outlook grounded in gratitude and acceptance, develop breathing techniques to reduce anxiety and depression, and find confidence in their bodies. Your donation will directly help to  launch this class in 2026!

Housing Stability

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In partnership with the Pine Street Inn, these quarterly movement workshops are offered with the remarkable women living in the Women’s Shelter at the Yawkey House. As some members are disabled and/or use a wheelchair, Urbanity teaches adaptive dance techniques in styles that range from Zumba to Contemporary. The program’s goal is for residents to use expressive dance as a vehicle to share parts of their story, find healing in their body, and find strength in community connection.

Movimiento por Todos

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This biweekly Senior Dance/Dance with Parkinson’s class, offered in partnership with IBA Boston, is taught in Spanish and free to all participants. The program draws on Latin dances and rhythms, with the last class of every month taught with live percussion. Drawing from athletic and boxing backgrounds, instructors challenge a diverse group of students to move big and stand in their power, taking up space in a joyful supportive environment. This popular class will continue to grow once Urbanity secures support to pay its instructors fairly and sustain its ongoing operations.

GIVING CIRCLE
If you’re interested in naming a Movement Meets track after your family or a loved one, you can learn more here.

CURRENT PARTNERSHIPS

  • Boston Community Pediatrics

  • Brookline Senior Center

  • Castle Square Tenants Organization

  • Dana Farber

  • Dance With Parkinson’s at Urbanity Dance

  • Mass General Brigham

  • MGH Institute of Health Professions

  • Movimiento en Sillas with Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) Boston

  • McLean Psychiatric Hospital

  • Pine Street Inn

  • Age Thrive at Urbanity Dance

  • Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

  • Youville House

PAST PARTNERSHIPS

  • Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Children’s Hospital

  • Boston Medical Center

  • Delta Projects

  • Horizons for Homeless Children

  • The Jeremiah Program

  • Partners for Youth with Disabilities

  • Roca Boston

  • Victory Programs

If you are interested in volunteering or partnering with Urbanity's Movement Meets, please email community@urbanitydance.org.

Movement Meets is generously supported by the Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation and the Cambridge Community Foundation.

We are building our founding Giving Circle now. Change how healing happens by supporting one of the tracks below.

Donate to Movement Meets