National Dance Day at Segerstrom Center

Segerstrom Center joins The Kennedy Center as the official site of this year’s National Dance Day celebrations on Saturday, Sept. 18. Recognized by Congress as a national day of dance, NDD promotes dance as a form of valuable exercise and artistic expression.  

Segerstrom Center events will be held from 4 – 8 pm. on the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza.

This annual event always fills up quickly, so advance reservations are required. The event is general admission, and guests can reserve their spot with a $10 per person reservation fee. The $10 fee is credited to the patron’s Center account after attending the September 18 event. The credit can be applied towards any ticket purchase made by October 31, for any Segerstrom Center performance.

• In person - Monday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Tuesday through Friday noon- 5 p.m.
• Closed Saturdays and Sundays
• Online - SCFTA.org 
• Phone - 714.556-2787
• Open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. daily
• Group Sales – 714. 755-0236

Dancer/Actor Tony Bellissimo to emcee the evening, which will feature fully inclusive and interactive dance lessons in a wide variety of dance styles, along with opportunities to learn this year's official NDD routine, choreographed by Brian and Scott Nicholson, accomplished dancers, singers, and artists who have toured as dancers, choreographers and creative directors for Ariana Grande. The Nicholsons have been working with the popstar for the past 11 years and were recently nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for “Best Choreography” for their work on Grande’s “34+35” video. The day’s celebrations will also include performances and classes by:

• Chinese Dance Company of Southern California
• Miriya Lee – Kpop workshop
• N8tive Hoop
• Dr. Jewel & African Soul International – African dance workshop
• Students from Segerstrom Center’s American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School
• And more to come!

Throughout the day, Segerstrom Center’s new neighbor, the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) will present Global Groove (1973), a seminal video work by Nam June Paik (1932-2006), who is widely considered the inventor of video art. 

Global Groove is a hallucinatory mélange of images, text, and sound that anticipates the music video genre and serves as an early manifesto on international communication. With dance as a recurring motif connecting disparate clips and art forms, this iconic work suggests an unbounded world of possibilities for new forms of expression to arise through cross-cultural and transdisciplinary encounters. Guests can delve further in a DIY video art-making workshop and create their own digital “groove” inspired by Paik’s artistic language on their mobile devices. 

To learn more about American Dance Movement and National Dance Day, visit the website at AmericanDanceMovement.org.

600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa.