'Urban Stomp: Dreams & Defiance on the Dance Floor' explores 200 years of NYC's dance history

Time Out

23-04-2025

The foxtrot, lindy hop, salsa, hustle and vogue all have roots in New York City, whether they were born here, shaped here or popularized in the city's clubs. A new exhibit at Museum of the City of New York turns the museum into a dance floor as it digs into the fascinating history and important role of these dances and more.
' Urban Stomp: Dreams & Defiance on the Dance Floor ' celebrates 200 years of social dance in New York City. It highlights the city's dance floors as sites for connection, creativity and joyful rebellion. You'll get to see everything from 1800s-era ball gowns to Louis Armstrong's trumpet to Celia Cruz's shoes to Big Daddy Kane's outfits. Plus, digital screens throughout the exhibition offer dance lessons—and it's nearly impossible not to move your body when the music starts. Grab your dancing shoes, and go see it now through February 22, 2026 in East Harlem.
The exhibition is arranged chronologically, starting with ballroom-style dances, moving into ragtime, swinging into the swing era, dancing into mambo and migration, then focusing on the energy of hip-hop and ball culture. Then, 'Urban Stomp' explores how New Yorkers have remixed dance traditions from around the world, such as cumbia, bhangra, Yiddish dances, Indigenous American dances and dabke. Though the exhibit is organized chronologically as to when the dances started, each dance continues to live on, co-curator Derrick León Washington says.
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As a final twist, there's an interactive dance floor where you can choose a record and play music to dance to. Unlike New York City's cabaret law—enacted in 1926 and repealed in 2017—which limited where people could legally dance, this space welcomes everyone to move, watch, record and build community through dance.
'It's a great way to understand New York, a lens to understand New York culture, understand New York history, understand the vibe of New York,' explains Sarah Henry, chief curator and deputy director of the Museum of the City of New York. 'And then New York is a great way to understand the evolution of social dance, how, not only how people create their culture, but also how they forge their identities.'
It may be hard to imagine now, but New Yorkers in the 1800s were dancing at every major event—the arrival of dignitaries, charity galas, private balls and even civic events like the opening of the Erie Canal. 'Anything where New Yorkers were celebrating, just like you'd have a parade, you'd also have a ball,' Henry adds.
By the turn of the 20th century, new rhythms and new kinds of dance started taking hold, with the roots of ragtime and swing, causing a 'moral panic' among those who wanted to police women's behavior in dance halls, she says.
You'll also learn about the Harlem Renaissance, the emergence of Wepa and the power of the cypher. Crystal LaBeija serves as the figurehead for a section about ballroom culture and the genre's associated houses. In the section about hip-hop, you'll get a chance to learn dances like the Bart Simpson and the running man.
The exhibit highlights the dialogue between music and dance, with Benny Goodman's clarinet, Miles Davis' trumpet and artifacts related to Billie Holiday.
There's something for everyone in the show, which Washington called a space of 'fun, excitement, and joy' as well as learning.
'The dance floor is where the promise of New York is embodied.'
'The dance floor is where the promise of New York is embodied. You get to experience other cultures. You get to meet New Yorkers who you wouldn't have met before. You get to have this feeling of joy and collective celebration that is just palpable,' Henry says. 'This chance to come to this show gives every visitor an opportunity to be a part of that. And then we hope that they will take that knowledge and go out and seek some of these incredible dance opportunities.'