NYC 5th Annual Dance Parade

Yesterday was the NYC 5th Annual Dance Parade through the East Village.  It was a wonderful array of music, costumes, people, and of course DANCING!  The parade started on 21st Street and Broadway and made it's way down to Thompson Square Park via St. Mark's Place, perfectly appropriate for this type of celebration (the funkiest street in all of NYC).  The sheer number of Bolivian Caporales groups was astonishing - the young ladies dancing with short, ruffled skirts and high heels with puffed-up shoulder sleeves while the men were dripping in sweat, head to toe covered in silk, more puffed-up shoulder sleeves and pants, and giant jingle bells on their leather boots.  It's an extremely festive dance that looks to me like a dance of courtship (the men and a the ladies really get to show their stuff!), and I have to say those groups were some of my favorite of the entire event!

Other groups included Bulgarian Folk Dancers, professional local dance studios (Dance New Amsterdam, Joffrey Ballet, Liberated Movement, etc.), Kids Ballroom Dancing, Bhangra, Belly Dance, Brazilian Samba, Ballerinas, Butterflies, Stilt Walkers, Drillteams, a gay wedding dance party (congratulations Tom & Zach!), and even a strange street rave party...see more for yourself on the TravelBareFeet YouTube channel.  Congratulations to all of the dancers - a lot of fun to watch and to be a part of such a wonderful movement!