A dance critic hits the studio for Philadelphia Dance Day 2025

This annual, nonprofit, volunteer-run festival connects people of all ages and backgrounds through dance. The event features free workshops in a range of dance styles, cultures, and eras before culminating in a performance showcase at Plays & Players Theatre. Since 2010, Philly Dance Fitness, an independent company based in Center City, has organized the event, partnering with local dance organizations and teachers to offer so many choices that it’s impossible to attend them all. On Saturday, July 26, I marked Philadelphia Dance Day’s 15th anniversary by taking as many dance classes as I could, and sharing them with you.

A positive challenge

First, there was the pregame. I studied the workshop schedule, planned my day, and prepared to spend it dancing. I packed a reusable water bottle, extra socks, tap shoes, a notebook and pen, and orthotics, toe spacers, and bunion guards. A new pair of kneepads also went into my bag. Striptease was on my Dance Day schedule, and in years past, I realized kneepads are a must when humping the floor.

My day began with a mixed-level tap workshop focusing on rhythm, timing, and musicality. Emma, a tap instructor at Equilibrium Dance Academy, led us through a few simple steps to assess our skills. The large group included long-time tappers, professional dancers from PHILADANCO!, and me, a true beginner. I have written about tap, though, and reviewed performances by MacArthur Genius Grant winner Michelle Dorrance. This helped me recognize the challenge of the increasingly complex steps and rhythms, and the brilliance of tap pros who improvise onstage. I quickly got lost, uncertain how a running flap should look or a paradiddle should sound, but I kept going, laughing between swigs of iced coffee. Everyone else was too busy with their footwork to notice, and Emma spoke encouragement and praise into a headset mic.

A natural connection

That good time was a theme throughout Dance Day, a welcoming, judgment-free celebration of dance and community. After tap, diva pop with Jody put me in more familiar territory, incorporating moves and music I knew from exercise classes. Dance-inspired workouts like aerobics and Zumba have been around forever—or at least since the 1820s, when education reformer Catharine Beecher added aesthetic calisthenics to the curriculum of her school for women—and I always liked them despite my aversion to gym class and team sports. Today, follow-the-leader dance workouts come relatively easily, but my brain and body struggle with learning combinations.

Regardless, mastering combinations is not the point of Philadelphia Dance Day. The point is the joy of moving in sync with others to songs by Rihanna and Chappell Roan. It is the raucous, window-rattling energy of soca rhythms and a room full of people swinging their hips. It is the moment when a 71-year-old woman shared that a dance therapy mirroring exercise conveyed emotions she had felt but could not express. It is my realization that dancing with others satisfies as much as experiencing art together. That, despite my introversion, connecting with others through movement feels natural and good.

The truth about sexiness

With this knowledge, I headed to striptease. Deborah Hirsch and Marianna Hunter of Philly Dance Fitness took turns leading the workshop, which emphasized sexy moves and gestures instead of undressing. I know Hunter and Hirsch, founder and president of Philly Dance Fitness, from their popular group exercise classes at the YMCA. Their candor and cheery verbal cues banished awkwardness as we smacked our rears, humped the floor, and shimmied. Sexiness, it turns out, is more about attitude than movement. Looks and clothing matter less than you think. Pointed toes and a sexy face are a must, Hirsch noted, as they distinguish striptease from modern dance. I was unable to make a sexy face, though, or even suppress my laughter, but I was glad I wore kneepads. Striptease was my last workshop of 2025, and Dance Day continued without me.

Pretty good, for a writer

All my preparations were useful, but in the end, they may have been misguided. Like any weekend warrior, I should have increased endurance, improved strength, and stretched a lot more. My body tired as the day passed, and my dancing suffered, with the humbling awareness that I dance well enough for a writer. On the other hand, this experience gives me a deeper understanding of the physical demands of professional dance. Professional dancers regularly spend hours a day in the studio and perform several days in a row, even multiple times a day. Mere mortals like me cannot. Instead, we collapse into the couch after a series of dance workshops, popping Advil like Skittles, anticipating the next Philadelphia Dance Day.