【Dance Parade / 纽约舞蹈嘉年华·巡游及狂欢】的创立是为了回应2006年纽约州最高法院的一项裁决，该裁决维持了1926年纽约市下达的歌舞表演禁令（Cabaret Law），否定了社交舞蹈是一项宪法第一修正案下受保护的自由表达方式。2017年，我们成功推动废除了这项91年来压制舞蹈与文化的禁令恶法。
嘉年华对舞蹈领域的独特贡献源于其能够集中呈现舞者和编舞带来的过百种独特流派和风格，为纽约乃至更广泛地区的舞蹈生态起到了带动作用。参与的艺术家们将嘉年华作为平台，触及更广泛的受众、传承文化遗产、促进更多合作。一年一度的巡游和狂欢活动被公认为是全球最多样的舞蹈文化展示平台，每年观众超过15万人。,000 each year.
Since 2008, the Dance Parade organization has tapped its pool of diverse multi-cultural talent to provide Community Engagement Programs to further its mission by sharing the joy of dance with historically under represented communities along with the city-wide dance community. Throughout the year, Workshop demonstrations and residencies are provided to youth in schools and recreation centers and for older New Yorkers in senior centers.
In 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic called for isolation and social distancing, the parade, festival and education programs were quickly brought to serve an online audience. A "Dare to Dance" video contest distributed cash prizes and attracked over 50,000 dancers and dance enthusiasts from 91 countries around the world.
In 2021, Dance Parade teamed up with 3 time Grammy Winner, Mickela Mallozzi, and NYC Life TV to produce a feature length documentary, "The Resilience of Dance Through the Pandemic" about the stories and performances of the dance community during the pandemic and included performances by Alvin Ailey, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Urban Bush Women, among others.
2022 saw the triiumphant return of the dance community with a record breaking Parade and Festival with an audience of over 120,000 who came out to see 150 organizations showcase over 100 unique styles of dance in an epic parade and five stage festival under the theme, "Back to the Streets!" In late 2022, a performance club called "Dancing Matters" was created to bring a monthly audience to a dance concert with follow up discussion. Performance outings are chosen by 100+ dance industry enthusiasts' ranked chose voting.2023 events have included Evidence, Dean Moss, Kinectic Light, STREB, MOMIX and Dancing While Black.
In 2024 our Dance Free NYC advoacy campaign successfully followed Dance Parade's 2017 success to repeal NYC's racist cabaret law by reforming antiquiated zoning that restricted dance to high density commercial and industrial disctrics. Today, in thousands of NYC nightlife venues zoning now allows dancing to live music. Currently our Freedom to Dance Campaign on LegalizeDance.Org seeks to change the NY State Liquor Authority's policy that restricts dancing where alcohol is served.