Movement Meets Giving Circle

Movement Meets are customized dance classes designed for community members who have experienced life-altering challenges, meeting the symptoms of a given diagnosis with the cultural prescription of dance. 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.

Founding Members who give $2,500-$5,000 towards Movement Meets in 2025-2026 will be included in the inaugural Giving Circle. Gifts over $10,000 have the opportunity to name a Movement Meets track, for example, after your family or a loved one. These founding gifts will allow Urbanity to close the gap in Movement Meets operating funds, cementing the legacy and impact of this program into the future.

It is a revolutionary act to stand in one’s space, boldly and confidently, in all of our authenticity and our body’s ever-evolving curiosities. Believing that dance is an essential part of wrap-around care and a cultural prescription for physical and mental well-being, Movement Meets classes center the idea that movement is medicine—and the importance of community and shared experiences during life-altering hardship.

If you are interested in naming a specific Movement Meets Track and would like to speak with Founder Betsi Graves about your ideas, please email her directly at betsi@urbanitydance.org. We are grateful for your leadership as we hope to scale up to hire and train enough staff and teachers to meet the needs of the community with Urbanity’s hallmark care and excellence.

Available tracks include…

Click to Learn More about the Dance with Parkinson's Track

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.

Click to Learn More about the Age Thrive Track

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.

Click to Learn More about the Mental Health Track

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.

Click to Learn More about the Cancer Recovery Track

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.

Click to Learn More about the Pediatric Wellness Track

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.

Click to Learn More about the Stroke Recovery Track

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.

Click to Learn More about the Addiction Recovery Track

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!

Click to Learn More about the Housing Stability Track

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.

Click to Learn More about the Movimiento por Todos Track

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.

Donate

If you’d like to donate to Urbanity’s Movement Meets program, please include a note saying ‘Movement Meets’ at checkout.