For our Back to School collection, we teamed up with our friends at Downtown Dance Factory, a NYC dance studio creating a joyful, inclusive space for young dancers to learn, grow, and find their confidence.
As a female-founded business with a strong community at its heart, DDF shares so much of what we love at Pink Chicken. And this partnership is especially meaningful to our founder Stacey, whose daughter Sadie grew up dancing at the studio.
Founded in 2009 by two local moms with seven kids between them, Downtown Dance Factory was born from a simple idea: to bring fun and high-quality dance training to children in downtown Manhattan. Today, it has grown into a beloved fixture of New York City’s vibrant dance community, with its seven-studio dance complex located on Broadway in Tribeca.
With classes for dancers ages 18 months through teens, Downtown Dance Factory offers approximately 180 classes each week across ballet, hip hop, jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary, musical theater, and breaking. More than 1,500 dancers from across NYC walk through our doors each week—not only receiving top-level dance training from some of the city’s leading teachers, but also building confidence, creativity, friendships, and a lifelong love of dance.
Our dancers take their talents beyond the studio, performing regularly at NBA and WNBA games, earning recognition at competitions throughout the tri-state area, and gaining acceptance to NYC’s top performing arts high schools and the nation’s leading college dance programs. Our alumni are beginning to forge professional careers in dance across the United States and internationally.
Our story and impact have been recognized by Dance Teacher Magazine, Dance Studio Life, Time Out Kids New York, and New York Magazine, while our dancers and faculty have earned national honors, including two Industry Dance Awards for Best Musical Theater Piece of the Year.
At Downtown Dance Factory, we’re proud of where we started—and even more excited about where our dancers are going.
Dancer Leni, (from the video) in her ballet class
Leni again, this time in her Lyrical class.
India (video choreographer) teaching a jazz class
DDF Artistic Director Hanne working with some of the dancers from the video in their jazz class.
DDF Artistic Director Hanne working with Elisa (from the video) in jazz class.
Sadie & Stacey at “The Dance Awards” in Las Vegas.
Sadie, aged 10, in jazz class at DDF
Q&A: Answered jointly by DDF Co-Founders: Melanie Zrihen (Business Director) and Hanne Larsen (Artistic Director)
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Tell us a little about Downtown Dance Factory. What inspired you to create the studio?
We were both looking for quality dance classes for our children in the downtown area. Surprisingly there weren’t lots available! All 7 of our children (Hanne’s four and Melanie’s three) joined DDF in its first semester. With 5 boys between us, it was important for us to create a studio with inclusive options for boys too!
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What makes DDF unique and different from other dance studios?
DDF is one of the few studios in Manhattan that trains dancers in a variety of dance styles from their very first steps through to the beginning of their professional dance careers. Our dancers are uniquely fortunate in that in NYC, we have access to amazing teachers and guest instructors - including Emmy-winners, Broadway performers, ballet professionals and Radio City Rockettes!
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What do you hope every child takes away from their experience at DDF - beyond learning to dance?
While we always love a high kick and pointed toe, we believe that there are so many more benefits to be gleaned from a dance class beyond dance itself. These include: confidence, teamwork, body positivity, fitness, a love of the art, friendship and community … all of which are priorities at DDF!
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What has been one of the biggest challenges of being a female founder, and what has it taught you?
Not only are we female founders, but both our staff and our dancers are predominantly female. We take our roles as female mentors and role models to our staff and students very seriously. Balancing family life and an all-consuming business is always a challenge both for us and our staff, but is made possible with support from each other and the understanding of our clientele of fellow moms!
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Is there a favorite piece you have choreographed? Or one that stands out the most to you over the years?
There are just so many favorite pieces over the years! For me personally (Hanne), favorites are often dances created to my favorite songs as I can share these songs with the dancers. Our jazz production this past year, with a cast of 47 dancers aged 9-18 years, was to Blondie’s “Call Me”! Introducing classic music like that to the dancers is the best!
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What does the back-to-school season feel like at the studio?
Back-to-school season at DDF means being reunited with your dance family! It’s just the best to see our students again after the summer break … and to see how they’ve grown and hear what they’ve been up to! And it’s always wonderful to welcome new dancers to our community of course!
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What does "joy" mean to you?
Joy is seeing our dancers find their voice and express themselves through dance. I once asked a 5 year student what the most important thing is to remember when you’re dancing. Her answer will stay with me forever. She said “I’m not really sure, but I just know it has to come from your heart”. That’s joy right there!
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How did you feel when Stacey and Pink Chicken reached out about collaborating on this special Back to School dance?
While Stacey’s daughter Sadie has now graduated and no longer dances at DDF, Sadie & Stacey are forever DDF Family! Collaborating with such an inspiring female founder and an amazing brand like Pink Chicken is an honor. Back to dance is big for both of our companies and is such a perfect time to collaborate! And a great chance for our little dancers to show what they can do!
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Stacey’s daughter, Sadie, grew up dancing at DDF. Are there any special memories, favorite classes, or dances you remember from her time at the studio?
So many!!! Sadie danced at DDF from when she was 5 years old until she graduated high school and was a star from day 1 - as well as such a wonderful and kind girl always! Sadie and my son, Atticus (who is now a professional dancer in Germany) were long-term dance partners and did so many beautiful duets together! Another very special memory is making the “Big Apple” video with her in iconic locations around New York City, just after the pandemic. A wonderful tribute by a beautiful dancers to this fantastic city we call home!
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What’s on deck for DDF this year? Anything you would like us to share/promote to our community?
We’re excited to be a finalist again this year in the “Industry Dance Awards” for the year’s “Best Jazz Performance” and we’ll be heading to Hollywood for the Awards Gala in October. So that’s exciting! Then there’ll be WNBA and NBA half-time shows, competitions, recitals and so much more. But really, just getting back into the studio when school goes back and seeing our dancers and the smiles on their faces when they return to dance is what we look forward to always!
Instagram: downtowndancefactory
Website: https://www.downtowndancefactory.com/
Pink Chicken + Downtown Dance Factory Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iQMw7i96l8
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