This is a free service I provide as a volunteer to help our Dance Community in Middle TN stay connected, and support each other. It is by no means a comprehensive listing, and listings are submitted by those on the email list.
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Greetings Dance Community,
Thanks for some grace in the timing of this month’s listings. I was travelling and without my laptop. It’s exciting to see the dance performances and offerings picking up this spring. I hope to see you in a studio or at a performance.
Amanda
ADDITIONAL OPTION to submit listings. Bookmark this Google Form and submit listings when you want rather than waiting for the Call for Listings.
April Dance Happenings
Friday Night Frolic with Amanda Cantrell Roche, April 11, 6-7:30 pm at Art & Soul Studio. Come move in community with others, through gently-guided explorations, improvisational exercises, and a group improv movement jam. No dance training needed – bring a friend with whom you’d love to share the magic of moving in community. April’s theme will be growth! $20. Register here.
Benjamin Chakoian Jones’ string quartet, “The Great Space” will traverse the balconies of Arcade Arts during the April 11 downtown art crawl. The piece features original choreography by contemporary dancer Becca Hoback, and will be presented for the first time as an immersive installation performance.
“With The Great Space, I seek to answer the questions of ‘What do we notice about the space we occupy in all our senses? Do we notice the little things? Do we step back and appreciate the grandeur of the spaces we occupy?’” – Benjamin Jones
Arcade Arts – Saturday, April 11, 7PM (Art Crawl 6PM – 9PM)
Free event, no pre-registration needed
ROSSI STUDIOS for the Arts and Human Rights is now open. You’re invited!
Come by and visit the venue at the Open House on Saturday and Sunday April 11th and 12th from 2 -4 pm. It is located at 3316 Masonwood Drive, Nashville, Tn near Dickerson Road and Briley Parkway. Classes are available in dance, theater and martial arts. Seniors are doing their thing on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11-1pm. Open auditions for “Let The Books Speak.” The production date is June 12-14th. Adult classes in Chicago step and other dances are on Sunday at 3 pm. Children’s West African Dance on Tuesday/Thursday 5 pm. Adult modern Dunham technique Monday/Wednesdays 7pm. By popular demand Parent and child class is Saturdays at 9:30 am. For a full schedule email Rossidance9@gmail.com. Register to perform at the full moon outdoor concert each full moon Saturday at 6:30 PM. Space is available for weddings, bride and groom choreography and birthday parties. Studio space and performance space is available for rental. Rossi Studios does not offer classes the final weekend of each month.
Join us for the dedication speech for the Paul Robeson Human Rights Round table with Attorney Mark Fancher from Michigan on April 23rd at 6:30 PM. Good food available to purchase. Dance classes are $100 p/m for 8 classes. Registration is $25. Ten percent (10%) of all proceeds support start-up companies in Africa
“Artist can go where politicians cannot.” Nelson Mandela
Contact: Rossi at Rossidance9@gmail.com.
Looking for an opportunity to reconnect with child-like wonder and play?
Embodied creativity is an ongoing class that combines improvised play and creative expression in community. Whether you’re an experienced performer or simply looking to unleash your creative spirit, this workshop invites anyone eager to play and discover new ways of expressing themselves. Come ready to move, laugh, and connect!
The class is donation based, pay what you can ($20 suggested) and open to anyone
https://forms.gle/qrLztRQXBCYf2Y4d9
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fo3wPl6zGKb9t_p7gs4Nf44AU4GY9kIS46d_mTO7cQ8/edit
Third Coast Comedy Club, Suite 202
April 11th 9:45- 11:45
May 9th 9:45-11:45
TPAC InsideOut Lunchtime Preview: Sherlock
Thursday, Apr 16, 2026
Lunch served beginning at 11:30 AM; Program in Studio A from 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Location: Martin Center for Nashville Ballet (3630 Redmon Street)
Free but reservation required. Reserve here: Lunchtime Preview: Sherlock | Tennessee Performing Arts Center Step into the noir-inspired shadows and follow the clues as we learn about Sherlock, the electrifying centerpiece of Nashville Ballet’s annual Attitude series. Acclaimed choreographer Penny Saunders will guide conversation, and the company will perform excerpts. In this riveting ballet, the legendary Sherlock Holmes comes alive through bold choreography, cinematic flair, and immersive storytelling.This is an education preview event and not a full performance. A free box lunch will be provided by Vanderbilt University.
Join Nashville Ballet at oneC1TY Amphitheater for a FREE weekend of dance activities, April 17-18, featuring live performances by NB2, Nashville Ballet’s official second company, and dance classes for all ages. No dance experience required to participate. Bring your blanket and come dressed ready to dance with us! Food trucks will be on site throughout the weekend for attendees’ enjoyment.
Join the artists of Clay Steakley’s The Fire Cycle for the premiere screening of the project’s culminating film for ALL ARTS. There will be plenty to enjoy, including free catered food, a retrospective and discussion panel with Defy Film Festival, a brand new edition of the book for sale, a silent auction, a costume gallery, and more. Celebrate The Fire Cycle‘s debut on the national stage at The Forge Nashville on Tuesday, April 21, 7PM – 9PM. The 30-minute film features local artists Clay Steakley, Alex Winer, Amanda Reichert, Asia Pyron, Becca Hoback, Denise Eason, Frannie Melancon, Phylicia Roybal, and Spencer Grady. Learn more and join the celebration!
Show your support for Kindling Arts at The Disco Ball: Wildest Dreams on Saturday, April 25th at Eastside Bowl. Step into a night of fantasy and surrealism, using the power of disco to transform the vibrant space at Eastside Bowl into a phantasmagoric dreamscape. Be swept away by lively activations, hidden scenes, and inclusive community, all topped off with an otherworldly disco dance party with beats by DJ RAIDEN. Engage with whimsical performances from some of Nashville’s finest talent, including PYDANCE, Found Movement Group, GrandmaFun, Savoya Foxx, and more — and even get a sneak peek at what’s in store for Kindling Arts Festival 2026: Utopias this summer. Don your most fantastical garment, celebrate the impossible, revel in the hallucinatory. Unleash your most fabulous self at The Disco Ball. Standard tickets $50, or use the code FANTASY to access special artist-priced tickets. More info at: https://www.kindlingarts.com/disco-ball-wildest-dreams
Ongoing
Global Education Center has adult dance classes in Bollywood, Shar Qui Belly Dance Workout, Zouk, Capoiera, many styles of Latin dance, and more. Click here for days, times, and registration.
Ecstatic Dance Nashville is the first and third Sunday of each month, 10:30 am at various locations. Click here for details.
New Dialect Community classes through May 20
Mondays + Wednesdays
9:30 – 10:30 AM & 10:35 AM – 12 PM at Morgan Community Center.
Join us for a brand new series of somatic and contemporary movement sessions led by Nashville’s most innovative choreographers and instructors, and in a whole new format! This spring, thanks to major support from Metro Parks Dance, we’re offering 2 classes each morning. The day begins with a somatic warm up like Gyrokinesis® or Alexander Technique® to align and attune our minds and bodies, followed by a contemporary movement class like contact improvisation, floor work, or choreographic research, where dancers can deepen their creative practice and express themselves through movement. Folks of all skill levels and backgrounds, ages 16+, are welcome to join in one or both sessions.
Check out the April and May schedule and class fees here.
Contact Improvisation 4-Class Series with McKay House
Wednesdays, 12:00-1:30 pm, April 8-29
Morgan Community Center
Series Registration: $40
Deepen your contact improvisation experience in a 4-class series dedicated to building a shared sense of trust and rigorous inquiry. This class series led by McKay House will explore momentum, weight sharing, and spirals within partnerships, group dynamics, and solo relating. Participants will work together to develop skills for tracking a partner’s momentum as well as acting and reacting within an ever-changing environment and ask, “When do we choose to soften, to resist, to release, to redirect, to disengage?”
May Save the Date
OZ Arts Nashville presents Impilo Manansala & Jeremy Nedd’s THE ECSTATIC for two nights only, May 1 & 2. The furiously fast footwork of Pantsula, a South African percussive street dance style, is juxtaposed with soaring Pentecostal “praise breaks” when the six members of Johannesburg-based Impilo Mapantsula make their U.S. Debut in The Ecstatic. This internationally-acclaimed collaboration with American-born choreographer Jeremy Nedd is a high-octane celebration of the youth-driven culture of Pantsula, which is rooted in high-speed virtuosic footwork but has also given rise to its own lifestyle, language, music, and fashion. In the final days of Apartheid, the movement gave a voice to a whole generation.The praise break in Pentecostal services is a moment when the dancing body, voice, and music energetically coalesce and start to blur the difference between ecstatic and cathartic. As the artists ask themselves what happens when these two worlds converge – what happens in this transcendental moment of “break” – they discover and “break open” a new space all their own. Artist & Creative Community tickets just $20-$25. Learn more & book now: https://www.ozartsnashville.org/mapantsula-nedd
This is a gathering of events I am aware of, submitted by those on the email list, and by no means represents all that is going on in the Middle TN area. I provide it as a volunteer service to the local dance community as part of an effort to help us stay connected and support each other by raising awareness of local dance performances, workshops, and events, and rely on those on the list serve to submit the listings.