Groove With Me, Inc. utilizes free dance classes and performance opportunities to build the leadership skills, pride, self-confidence, creativity, joy, and discipline that girls need to grow into strong and successful women.

Description:
Over 200 girls participate each week in more than 25 Groove With Me dance classes. Groove With Me, Inc. has five (5) major programs. Registration is mandatory to participate in each program. Organization requirements teach girls responsibility to themselves and to others. They must be present 85% of the time in order to dance in performances. All 5 programs provide one to two hours of dance class each week with performances occurring throughout the year. The 5 major programs include: Wee Dance (Ages 4, 5, 6), Girls Groove (Ages 7-12), Teen Rock Out (Ages 13-18), Summer Grooves (Ages 4-18), and Movin' Moms.

History:
Groove With Me, Inc. provides free dance classes and performance opportunities to low-income, at-risk girls in Manhattan's East Harlem. Our mission is to utilize dance to instill in young women the leadership, pride, spirit of cooperation, creativity, joy and discipline needed to confront the adversity in their daily lives and future development. The program seeks to decrease teen pregnancy, truancy, crime, violence, prostitution, substance abuse and gang related activity by nurturing youth and providing a more enriching lifestyle to their families. Since 1996, Groove With Me, Inc. has served over 500 girls and women in its own dance space, with the help of many volunteers and through partnerships with local organizations.

Groove With Me began with a vision that a dance center would become a haven for low-income girls to find a neutral zone and discover their potential. In June 1996, the organization's founder Abigail Rosin met with two students at Loisada, Inc., a community center on the Lower East Side. In that first year Groove With Me, Inc. grew to serve over forty girls aged 7-14 with seven volunteer teachers and five classes each week. This rapid growth clearly demonstrated the need and thirst for this type of youth programming while also filling a void for a girl-specific activity. In February 2001 Groove With Me opened its own studio in Spanish Harlem. On the first day of registration 100 girls poured through the door, again demonstrating the demand for a girl specific program. In August 2002 Meredith Sherman, LMSW, came on staff as Program Director. Through her efforts Groove With Me enrolled and maintained 220 students throughout this academic year and the years that followed.

Contact people:

Meredith Sherman, Program Director/LMSW, (212) 987-5910, (email) Abigail Rosin, Founder & Executive Director, (212) 987-5910, (email)

Address:

186 E. 123rd Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10035 (See a map)

Directions:

We are located on 123rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. We are easily accessed by the 4, 5, or 6 trains to 125th Street or by the M101 and M60 buses.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 125th St. and Lexington Ave.,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5 minutes   Nearest Bus Stop: M101, M60, BX15, 2 minutes minute walk