Groove With Me takes step closer to annual benefit in Harlem

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Dancing away stress is a familiar concept to the Columbians who pack night clubs every weekend. Abigail Rosin, founder and executive director of Groove With Me, takes the intrinsic healing power of dance a step further by using lessons as a way to build self-esteem in adolescent girls in the Harlem area.

Groove With Me has its annual benefit, Tap and Tapas, coming up on April 19. The benefit will serve tapas prepared by big-name chefs such as Michael Laiskonis from Le Bernardin and Damon Wise from Craft. Tickets are on sale now for $175.

Rosin, a graduate from Brown with a degree in women’s health care, founded Groove With Me as a unique way of fostering self-confidence and a feeling of accomplishment. The organization offers free jazz, funk, tap, Nia, and hip hop dance classes to girls in East Harlem.

“We use free dance classes and opportunities to perform to instill these girls with leadership, pride, cooperation, creativity, joy, and all the developmental skills they need to face adversity,” program director Meredith Sherman said. The organization draws primarily from the East Harlem area, and girls are welcome to attend as long as they have a good attitude. “We hope that what we give them will help decrease teen pregnancy, crime, violence—basically the risks they face in the hours from three to seven when they’re outside of school.”

The teaching philosophy is also nontraditional at Groove With Me, focusing more on the developmental aspects of dance rather than the actual physical movement. “Every dance class starts with a circle where the whole dance class has time to share whatever they have on their mind,” Sherman said. “We try to do a good job of transitioning them from whatever’s going on in the outside world to in here.”

The organization also provides opportunities for these girls—it has a long-standing relationship with the American Tap Dance Foundation, which gives a scholarship to a few of the girls each year. Sherman said that several of their graduates continue to pursue dance in college and beyond.

Groove With Me provides local dancers and dance instructors with the opportunity to use their skills to make a difference, something Sherman said Columbia dance majors may consider. “Generally, volunteers start out as teaching assistants so they can learn the ropes and learn our philosophy,” she said. However there is a time commitment: “They would have to be committed to being with us for at least an hour a week for the entire school year.”

Correction: The original article indicated that tickets cost $75, when they cost $175.