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Kansas City has been swinging since the 1930s and a vibrant dance community keeps the tradition active. Whether you're a beginner or pro, KCUR put together this guide to the different styles of swing dance, and the meet ups, classes, and organizations that the city has to offer.
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When hip-hop hit Kansas City streets, the effect was immediate. The new sound took over record stores, local high schools and underground dance parties. As the country celebrates 50 years of the art form, Kansas City honors its own contributions to the culture.
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The inaugural market had more than 10 Indigenous vendors as well as dancing exhibitions and a vaccine station. Organizers said it brought people of many different tribes together and taught the public about Native American culture.
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A piano phenom from Overland Park is making waves in the world's most prestigious competitions, and he's still in middle school. Plus: The Kansas City Ballet is getting into the spooky mood with the North American premiere of "Jekyll and Hyde," bringing the 1886 gothic horror classic to life through dance.
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Kansas City audiences will be the first on the continent to see Robert Louis Stevenson's Gothic novella in ballet form. Celebrated choreographer Val Caniparoli consulted with dancers in the area to help shape the work.
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The marching band and drill team’s founder, Willie Arthur Smith, is retiring after more than 50 years of entertaining crowds in Kansas City and beyond.
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Vanessa Woods, a former professional ballet dancer, suffered an injury that ended her career. So she formed a company, Vitality in Motion, that brings movement classes to retirement communities, while also providing work for dancers when they're not performing.
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You won't hear gendered terms like "ladies" and "gents" at a new square dance in the West Bottoms. Organizers of this do-si-do scene put an inclusive spin on the traditional American art form.
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A new Kansas City square-dancing group is putting a gender-neutral spin on an age old American tradition. Plus: A Kansas historian documents the internal fighting between white soldiers and mistreated Black soldiers that threatened America's war efforts in Vietnam.
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Kansas City Ballet is expanding its South Campus, located in Prairie Village's Meadowbrook Shopping Center, at 95th Street and Nall Avenue. The reimagined building allows the school to offer a wider range of classes for children and adults.
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It’s been years since New York City's Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has performed in Kansas City. The Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, a nonprofit dance school, hopes this year's revived performance will help expand access in the metro to the art of dance.
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McFadden performed for decades with his brother Lonnie McFadden. The two danced, sang and played instruments. "I love entertaining," Ronald McFadden told KCUR's Up to Date last year.