Community Programs

The Beacon/Advantage program provides a wide variety of academic, creative, social-emotional, and recreational activities for the young people we serve. Middle school participants make their own schedules, choosing from a wide variety of project-based literacy, STEM, and arts activities, (including Drama, Sports Journalism, Song Writing, Music Production, Computer Animation, Science Club, and many more), as well as several physical activities (Martial Arts, Dance, Sports, Fitness, Gym and Yoga). All participants also take part in community service projects, Showcase performances, and field trips throughout the year. 

Pentacle’s Community Program at Groove With Me, Inc. gives middle and high school-aged young women from Harlem and the Bronx exposure to and customized experiences in choreography and career development

Groove With Me, Inc. is a youth development organization using free dance classes and performance opportunities as a tool to instill in young women the leadership, pride, spirit of cooperation, creativity, joy and discipline needed to confront the adversity in their daily lives and throughout their future development. Pentacle provides dance classes and open conversations with program mentors, which empower participants to explore alternative paths in the arts while also developing essential leadership skills.

Since incubating the program as one of our new initiatives, Pentacle has been able to provide hands-on support to this cohort through all-female career fairs, choreographic mentorship, museum tours, artist talkbacks, and mentoring sessions with our staff and artists. Today we work with Groove With Me to continually provide new and enriching experiences to this vibrant group of young women in response to their evolving interests and needs.

Grand Street Guild is a nonprofit housing organization that runs three residential low-income buildings in the Lower East Side. Pentacle’s Community Program at Grand Street Guild builds upon the success of our Groove With Me partnership, and brings cultural dance classes, career development, and a performance opportunity to youth in the community's 9-14 age group. These offerings directly reflect the residents' diverse demographics—70% Hispanic, 20% African American and 10% Chinese—and include classes in traditional as well as contemporary dance forms from their cultures.