Rikud Studio opens in Prospect Heights, reimagining dance training by way of avenue and membership dance and difficult the long-standing assumption that ballet should be the place to begin of kids’s dance training. Rikud Studio focuses completely on avenue and membership dance types together with breaking, hip-hop, and home. Positioned roughly a ten-minute stroll from Barclays Heart, the studio has enrolled greater than 165 college students in its first two months and now affords 30 weekly lessons serving youngsters, teenagers, and adults. Rikud operates on an deliberately different mannequin with no mirrors, no ballet, and no recitals.
Rikud was based by Caila Moed, a former Goldman Sachs skilled who spent greater than a decade working in finance and philanthropy. Her new enterprise displays a rising development amongst millennial girls towards entrepreneurship over company careers. Moed credit her dance coaching with shaping the self-discipline and high-performance mindset that knowledgeable her skilled profession.
“Most dance studio training within the U.S. nonetheless begins with ballet and works in the direction of recitals,” mentioned Moed. “However traditionally, lots of of distinct dance traditions emerged from cultures all over the world lengthy earlier than ballet grew to become the norm in European courts. Hip-hop, home, and breaking are full dance types with their very own strategies, histories, and pedagogies.”
Instruction attracts from the established foundations of avenue and membership dance–resembling bouncing, rocking and grooving- and together with breaking fundamentals resembling toprock, footwork, energy, freezes whereas bringing your personal distinctive model to the desk. The studio affords lessons for all ages. Their hottest class is “Littles,” a caregiver-and-child dance celebration that introduces younger youngsters to the foundations of avenue dance.
Rikud’s philosophy displays a broader motion inside dance training–refocusing coaching on foundational motion rules, improvisation, and cultural context relatively than efficiency. Many dance educators have grown involved that social media is making dancers focus solely on short-form tips, acrobatics, and visually sensational choreography, generally on the expense of musicality, groove, texture, and emotional expression.
All lessons are taught by working skilled dancers and choreographers, and the studio prioritizes instructors who stay energetic performers inside their communities. Rikud’s Grasp Trainer is Andrew Carter, well-known within the dance neighborhood as Dr. Ew, an expert B-boy and choreographer.
Rikud doesn’t place itself as an authority on hip-hop tradition, however relatively as a hub and convener. The studio’s location locations it in proximity to a lot of hip-hop’s most traditionally wealthy neighborhoods. Clinton Hill was the childhood neighborhood of The Infamous B.I.G., whereas close by Bedford-Stuyvesant’s is the childhood residence of Jay-Z. Public areas resembling Prospect Park and Fort Greene Park have lengthy served as gathering locations for dancers.
Rikud’s summer season camp is a collaboration with HereNow Cultural Area in Mattress-Stuyvesant. They’ll join campers on to the world’s cultural historical past by way of neighborhood excursions, graffiti arts, hip-hop, breaking, and DJ instruction. Rikud serves longtime Brooklyn residents, younger households, and newcomers. The studio additionally hosts breaking battles and neighborhood dance occasions all year long, together with an upcoming youngsters breaking battle in partnership with the New York Collective and a household dance celebration with local-legends Saint James Pleasure.
Rikud Studio’s class choices are designed to welcome movers of all ages whereas centering the tradition, historical past and pleasure of avenue and membership dance. For the youngest individuals, Littles invitations youngsters ages 0–3 and their caregivers right into a playful music-and-movement expertise full of rhythm, dancing and guided exploration, whereas Minimovers introduces ages 3–5 to foundational hip-hop grooves, coordination and confidence-building motion.
For older youngsters, Breakdancing and Hip-Hop lessons for ages 5+ mix toprock, footwork, freezes, popping, waving and newbie energy strikes, alongside classes in hip-hop historical past and musicality. Teenagers ages 12+ can be part of an all-level class centered on neighborhood, high-energy motion and studying dance-floor-ready choreography in a welcoming social setting.
Adults are additionally a key a part of the studio’s mission, with choices that embrace low-pressure all-level hip-hop lessons, Babywearing Dance for folks and caregivers, open-level yoga impressed by Ashtanga and Iyengar traditions, plus accessible open classes resembling Home with a dwell DJ and free Hip-Hop Open Periods.
This summer season, Rikud may also host its Summer time Camp from June 15 by way of August 14, 2026, providing small-group programming for ages 5–14. Campers will rotate by way of breaking, hip-hop and home dance, whereas additionally collaborating in visible arts impressed by graffiti tradition and motion. Youthful campers will discover rhythm video games, impediment programs and artistic tasks, whereas older individuals dive deeper into approach coaching, freestyle growth, choreography, cultural research and mentorship. Scholarships can be found, with extra info at rikudstudio.com.
