Tag Archives: Dancers

Grassroots Community Space in Jersey City – A Small Business Incubator for Local Artists

Cover Story -Where Stars are Born

LogoGrassrootsCommunitySpace

   By Sally Deering

Drum Circle at Grassroots Community Space in JerseyCity
Drum Circle at Grassroots Community Space in JerseyCity

 

 

Chelo Mercado  of Grassroots Community Space with his wife Sirena Mari Mercado
Chelo Mercado of Grassroots Community Space with his wife Sirena Mari Mercado

 Tucked inside the downtown Jersey City community on Coles Street is a rather plain looking storefront that when you step inside makes you feel like Dorothy landing in Munchkinland in “The Wizard of Oz.”  

 Welcome to the Grassroots Community Space, an intimate one-room studio rental where dancers, actors, drummers and other artists teach classes and put on performances. Warm and welcoming, the Grassroots Community Space has a vibe that seems to say “let’s have fun and create something” and it serve an even greater purpose as a small business incubator for local artists to try their hand at teaching their craft. Some groups, who have rented the Grassroots Community Space to teach classes have gone on to start their own business in their own space.

 Jersey City is home to many professional artists, actors, singers, dancers, writers and poets from all over the world, but performance space is limited – and pricey. In 2008, with a couple of partners, Chelo Mercado of Jersey City saw the need for a community space where local artists could teach and perform. The trio decided to fill the gap and open Grassroots Community Space for artists to share their artistry. Continue reading Grassroots Community Space in Jersey City – A Small Business Incubator for Local Artists

COVER STORY-Leading The Kennedy Dancers

Diane Dragone (still) has the Dancer in Her Soul

new-diane-in-sailor-suit-in-air

by Sally Deering 

 In the 1920s, when Shirley Temple tapped into America’s hearts with her bouncing ringlets, ruffled crinolines and shiny black tap shoes, mothers from Canarsie to Kenosha trundled their daughters off to their local dance school dreaming of their baby girl’s name in lights. Nowadays, child stars go by first names like Britney, but the local dance school still thrives as the only training ground for kids who dream of a dancing career.

 One local dance pioneer who has kept the stage lights burning in her neighborhood dance studio for the past 34 years is Diane Dragone, Artistic Director of The Kennedy Dancers, a professional dance company and dance school that stands in the wings of New York City.  Through her school and with her years as a teacher and choreographer, Dragone has trained and enriched the lives of thousands of inner-city kids – some who became professional dancers — and she has brought modern and classical dance performances to the multi-cultural and economically-diverse Hudson community. Continue reading COVER STORY-Leading The Kennedy Dancers