Join us this Fall on the Esplanade for International Moves & Food, led in partnership with Boston Dance Alliance. 2025’s season will have a Latin twist, with each night highlighting a different Latin American region and cuisine.
Move, learn, connect to dances you might not have experienced before! Each class will have a different dance to learn, so each night will be a unique experience in the park. After you learned some new steps, you can enjoy free food and beverages from a local restaurant, all celebrating the dance’s culture!
See the 2025 schedule below for class and instructor details!
2025 Class Dates:
Sept 24(canceled)- Oct 1
Oct 8(canceled)- Oct 15
2025 CLASSES AND PARTNERS
October 1: SALSA
Raices Latin Dance
In 2011, native New Yorker and instructor John-John Semidei and dancer Lindiana Flores (a Worcester native) united their salsa passion in a dynamic partnership to create Raices Latin Dance. Based out of Worcester, Massachusetts with a mainly On-1 Salsa scene, John-John and Lindiana desired to diversify the salsa community by introducing the New York On-2 salsa style to the area. Since its inception, Raices Latin Dance has taken off teaching multiple classes and workshops each week and performing in numerous salsa congresses and venues across the region.
John-John Semidei and Lindiana Flores
October 8: Intro to Latin Dance
Meta Movements with Anara Frank
Anara Frank discovered her passion for Latin dance while living in Havana as a teenager. She trained extensively in Salsa, Cha Cha Cha, and Cuban dance styles, studying with renowned teachers in New York, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. As the founding director of JAM’NASTICS Inc. and MetaMovements, Anara has led dance exchanges and trained thousands of students in a variety of Latin and modern dance styles as well as gymnastics. Known for her expertise in developing dancers, she has helped many students become successful performers, instructors and artist entrepreneurs. Anara’s work focuses on using dance to build strength, flexibility, and resilience, especially during challenging times. Passionate about dance’s transformative power, she continues to teach, choreograph, and create events with MetaMovements Artist Collective members in Boston and the Caribbean, inspiring dancers worldwide.
Anara Frank
2024 CLASSES AND PARTNERS
October 2: Haitian Folklore
Velouse Joseph of Jean Appolon Expressions
This Jean Appolon Expressions class begins with a cardio warm-up, and proceeds through movements that cover several different rhythms from Haitian Folklore like Yanvalou, Ibo and Congo. Be ready to sweat! One of the most remarkable things about this class is the vast range of participants, in terms of age, dance experience, and connections to Haiti. What they share in common is loving class and finding it to be a fulfilling, fun workout and opportunity for connection.
MEET THE ARTIST-EDUCATOR
Velouse Joseph studied dance at the Jean Appolon Expressions’ Summer Dance Institute in Port-au-Prince, Haiti from 2013-2018. She also assisted Jean in her hometown of Arcahaie at the organization Hope on a String (HOAS). Velouse joined HOAS as instructional staff, teaching dance to younger students. In 2018, Velouse moved to Massachusetts with family and joined JAE as a professional dancer and educator. She teaches Haitian Folkloric classes in public schools and with the JAE community near and far.
Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE):
Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) is a Boston-based dance organization that blends Haitian folkloric and contemporary styles. Founded by Jean Appolon, JAE creates a unique artistic vernacular that educates audiences about Haitian culture, traditions, history, and current issues. JAE’s dynamic repertoire is designed to preserve Haitian folkloric culture while continuously revitalizing the art form in a way that is vital, accessible, inspiring, healing, and educational. The company is composed of dancers from diverse backgrounds, each committed to using dance to share and celebrate Haitian culture. Appolon’s dance company has performed at major venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, Boston’s Paramount Center, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Yard, and the ICA, as well as in site specific community spaces with free public performances. JAE has had the honor of sharing the stage with notable figures such as Danny Glover, Henry Louis Gates, and Edwidge Danticat, and collaborates with community partners throughout the greater Boston area.
October 9: Traditional Irish Dance
Rebecca McGowan with live accordion accompaniment by Natasha Sheehy
Enjoy an evening of jigs and reels and traditional step dancing. We’ll learn hard shoe steps and rhythms from the basics, open to all backgrounds!
MEET THE ARTIST-EDUCATORS
Rebecca McGowan is a dancer and teacher of traditional Irish dance in the Boston area. Drawing on the musicality of older-style step dance and sean-nós dance, the grace of soft shoe, and the joy of social dance traditions, Rebecca is interested in exploring step dance as music and making Irish dance lyrical and approachable. She often performs with duet partner Jackie O’Riley; together they released visual album From the Floor (2019) and audio album Eight Feet Tall (2023). They were recognized by the Massachusetts Cultural Council as Choreography Fellows (2022). Other projects have included directing contemporary step dance company Rising Step; reconstructing dances from the internet archive and exploring stylistic change over time; and developing Sound Shadows (2019) with Veronica Barron and Julia Friend, weaving shadow puppetry, dance, and song. Rebecca has been on the faculty of the Catskills Irish Arts Week, Acadia Trad Festival, Pinewoods, O’Flaherty Retreat, CCE MAD Week, and others. As a child Rebecca began dancing with Clare Sullivan, and later with Kieran Jordan and the Culkin School, and she continues studying with master teachers and dancing socially at local sessions. She teaches non-competitive step dancing for adults in the Boston area. 
October 16: Latin Dance
Eli Pabon of Metamovements
Join us for an engaging Latin dance session where you’ll learn easy, follow-along routines that are perfect for beginners as well as experienced dancers! Immerse yourself in the vibrant rhythms of salsa, bachata, merengue, dembow and reggaeton as our experienced instructor and dance host, Eli Pabón of MetaMovements, guides you step by step. Feel the music, meet new friends, and unleash your inner dancer in a fun, welcoming atmosphere. No partner or experience needed—just bring your good vibes and let’s move together!
MEET THE ARTIST-EDUCATOR
MetaMovements is a collective of artists united by our passion for Latin dance and music, believing in the arts as a catalyst for positive transformation and cultural exchange. With diverse skills and talents, we uplift our communities and celebrate the rich history of our beloved dance styles. Our members span multiple countries, dedicated to fostering lasting social change. 
October 23: Classical Indian Dance
Samadrita “Sam” Bhattacharyya and Meghma “Meg” Banerjee of Souls of India
The class tonight gives you a taste of how tradition meets modernism. The first demo will be a pure dance piece in traditional Indian classical dance form. The second demo will give you a taste of how we incorporate our classical training with a modern outlook into a regional dance form called Bengali contemporary using a background score from the Oscar winning director Satyajit Ray. After that, we will teach a short choreography from our second demo piece to those interested (all levels of dancers and non-dancers are welcome) and hope to end the session with all of us dancing together.
MEET THE ARTIST-EDUCATORS
Souls of India is an Indian Creative Arts Collaboration company in the Greater Boston area founded by Samadrita (Sam) Bhattacharyya and Meghma (Meg) Banerjee. As modern day Indian Classical artists, our main goal is to serve the local and national community through unique and creative dance productions reviving historic stories of rich Indian mythology, creating original rendition of legendary novels of Indian poets and playwrights through musicals/dance dramas, and recreating iconic regional folk tales using Indian classical dance forms namely Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Rabindranritya, and Bengali contemporary dance forms with interesting background score, transitions, and footwork. It is not semi-classical or bollywood. In the last 3 years, we have performed in over 15 shows as invited artists with different collaborating artists at various fundraisers, community events where we have directed big productions with over 30 dancers as well as been teaching classes and hosting workshops across Boston. We performed as selected artists at the Dance for World Community Festival by Jose Mateo Ballet Theater in June 2024. One of our highlights this year was hosting and performing at our independent sold-out ticketed concert called Aikya-The Union with live musicians (from New Jersey) in the Dance complex, Cambridge in March, 2024. 
Directions to the Classes
For general directions to the Charles River Esplanade, you can go to the Map & Directions page. All fitness classes will take place either in Fiedler Field or the Hatch Memorial Shell Lawn.
Directions to Fiedler Field
Directions to Hatch Memorial Shell
