The Edge of Dance: Cool Dance, Hot Yoga in Armonk

THE EDGE OF DANCE: Cool Dance, Hot Yoga in Armonk It’s a dance studio. It’s a hot Yoga studio. It’s Edge of Dance and it’s coming to Armonk this fall for young dancers and anyone who wants to sweat, detox, build strength and flexibility and focus their mind while doing the downward facing dog in 105-degree heat.

Since 2011, Armonk resident and dancer Kristen Difabrizio has taught budding ballerinas and those with an urge to tap, hip-hop and more in her Edge of Dance Studio in Mt. Kisco. Their complete dance curriculum, small teacher to student ratios, competitive dance companies and special training tools like the Tumbl Trak have drawn a strong following from throughout the area. But as both a dancer and a businesswoman one thing struck Kristen as odd.

Moving to Armonk – where the dancers are!

Most of her students were coming up from Armonk! So she decided to go where the dancers are. “After six years of searching, we are so excited to have found the perfect space!” Difabrizio told us about her new venue at 100 Business Park Drive in Armonk. The facility offers dance studios with Harlequin sprung floors and vinyl marley surfaces, shatterproof mirrors, and Barres around the perimeter of the studio.

“Not only is it beautifully lit, with windows lining the entire circumference of the studio, but it will have an office, a dressing room and a lounge for our students to hang out and do homework.” Not to mention its four spacious studios — “it really is our dream space,” she said.

Hot yoga for everyone

One other notable development marked her six-year stint in Mt. Kisco. She discovered hot yoga. Personally she found it a perfect antidote to the physical and mental stresses and strains of dance. “It is single-handedly the best thing I have ever done for myself,” Difabrizio says, of her obsession to the practice.

So she began offering classes in Hot Yoga in her studio to help some of her older students decompress, sculpt muscles and gain strength, flexibility and balance. “It really allows one to stay so active and injury-free” — important factors to keep in mind when the dance training is so strenuous.

Her dancers raved about the Hot Yoga classes to their moms and their moms started signing up for the classes while their kids danced. In her new Armonk studio, Kristen will offer special community classes (for just $5) for anyone looking to sweat their way to inner peace.

From ballet to hip-hop and a Tumbl Trak too!

The company offers an array of classes, from ballet and tap, to pointe, jazz, hip-hop and lyrical. Their Tumbl Trak, a training tool designed to allow for increased repetition by decreasing stress on the body, provides a unique session in tumbling and acrobatics. The Tumbl Trak caters to girls 2 1/2-18 of all levels and abilities.

“We run the gamut,” Difabrizio explains. “We have kids who come in just for a fun dance class once or twice a week, and then we have girls who audition to be part of the full company [who perform] in extra shows and compete all across the country.”

Depending on their age and level, EOD students will train anywhere from 3-15 hours per week. In addition to their classes, the larger company of girls performs regularly at local community centers and events, including the Mt. Kisco Child Care Center and Armonk’s annual Frosty Day Parade. The season concludes with a cumulative end-of-year recital in June.

The hot Yoga sessions conclude with inner peace.

By Matt Smith

Edge of Dance will open in Armonk in mid-late summer. Registration is now open for fall classes that begin on September 11. theedgeofdance@gmail.com

 (The Edge of Dance, 100 Business Park Drive, Armonk; 914.305.6706; www.theedgeofdance.com)