From Broadway to the Classroom, a Dancer Brings the Stage Home
There are moments when you can tell someone is a dancer before they ever introduce themselves.
It is in the way they enter a room. The way their body seems to understand space before their mind has finished measuring it. The way children instinctively move a little closer.
Today, at the Booker T. Washington Community Center in Harlem, Broadway dancer Kareem Marsh walked into a room full of preschoolers—and danced.
Not on a Broadway stage. Not beneath theatrical lights. Not in front of a paying audience.
With children.
And somehow, that may have been the most important performance of the day.
Marsh is the kind of artist whose résumé could easily become the whole story. A Philadelphia native, he began his vocal and dance training as a teenager, studying under respected Philadelphia arts educators including Joan Myers Brown, Dara Meredith, Shawn-Lamere Williams and Lucinda McCann.
His professional career took him from Philadelphia’s dance community to international stages. He has danced with companies including Eleone Dance Theater, Waheed Works and PHILADANCO! — The Philadelphia Dance Company, and has performed in more than 13 countries, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
There was television. There was film. In 2021, Marsh appeared in the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights.
And then there was Broadway.
In 2024, Marsh made his Broadway debut in the revival of The Wiz at the Marquis Theatre. He joined an extraordinary all-Black company in a production choreographed by JaQuel Knight, performing throughout the production in the ensemble and in roles including the Tornado, Townsperson, Crow, Kalidah, Ozian and Winkie.
But there is another credit that tells us something about Kareem Marsh that a Broadway marquee cannot.
Assistant Dance Captain.
That position requires more than knowing choreography. It requires leadership, precision, communication and the ability to help an entire company maintain the standard of a production.
And those qualities are now coming to Harlem.
Marsh has been an arts educator since 2012, teaching in public-school systems in Philadelphia and New Jersey, choreographing musicals and developing programs designed to empower young people. He is also one of the founders of ARK — Artist Receiving Knowledge, an initiative created around the idea that artists should have access to knowledge, resources and community as they develop their careers.
Which brings us to today.
Watching Marsh dance with preschoolers at Booker T., there was no separation between the Broadway performer and the teacher.
The same body that has crossed international stages was suddenly meeting children at their level.
A movement became a game.
A rhythm became a lesson.
A professional dancer became a teacher.
And perhaps that is where the real story begins.
Because what happens when a child in Harlem gets to learn dance from someone who has actually stood on a Broadway stage?
What happens when Broadway isn’t something they only see from a seat—but something that walks into their neighborhood?
What happens when the distance between the dream and the dancer becomes a little smaller?
Beginning in November, Kareem Marsh will bring that experience to the Booker T. Washington Community Center with new community dance classes, meeting Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7:00–8:30 PM.
The classes will be open to the community for $25 per class.
For aspiring dancers, it is an opportunity to train with a working professional.
For adults who simply want to move, it is an invitation to get back into their bodies.
For young artists, it is something even more valuable:
A reminder that the people they see on the stage are real people—and sometimes, they live and teach right in the neighborhood.
There is something wonderfully old-fashioned about that idea.
The great dancer teaches the next dancer.
The artist gives back what was once given to them.
The stage leads back to the classroom.
And the classroom, perhaps, leads back to the stage.
Kareem Marsh has already danced around the world.
Now, he’s dancing with Harlem.
And somehow, that feels like the beginning of something.
COMMUNITY DANCE WITH KAREEM MARSH
Beginning November
Monday, Wednesday & Friday
7:00–8:30 PM
$25 per class
Booker T. Washington Community Center
Harlem, New York
Come dance. Come train. Come be part of the community.
