The Flavor Continues (TFC) in partnership with Cambridge Community Center for the Arts (CCCA) and BioMed Realty have been and continue to be able to provide a space for the street and club dance community in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is important for us and the people in our community to have our own space due to the trend of artistic space closures such as TMBKTU, Green Street Studios, Studio 550, and designated spaces on MIT campus, further exacerbated by more spaces closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
TFC met with the CCCA in their BioMed Realty space on Thursday, October 15th, 2020 beginning our 10-week partnership together. Within 48 hours, Sunday, October 17th, TFC made an immediate impact placing 17 groups of six different street and club dance forms into scheduled times covering every day of the week starting as early as 10:30am and ending as late as midnight. By the end of the 10-week partnership, we were hosting 20 groups of eight different street and club dance forms.
Our arts and cultural programming (practices, lessons, classes, gatherings, etc) at the CCCA is not open to the public due to COVID-19 safety protocols. Space usage is limited to a 10-person capacity requiring your name to be listed for the particular time slot which also serves as COVID-19 tracing, masks required (unless everyone present lives together), with 30 minutes in between each group for cleaning and sanitizing. We are proud to announce that we have had zero COVID-19 cases in our space during our arts and cultural programming.
Unlike other spaces available, the TFC X CCCA space ensures accessibility to the marginalized communities that are the inventors of the street and club dance forms that we live, love, and practice, by having no set fees for usage and relying on donations on a sliding scale. This is made possible by BioMed Realty being an incredibly charitable landlord in providing a space for street and club dance when it is needed the most.
We are excited that BioMed Realty has extended our stay beyond the initial 10-weeks into a full calendar year with our new residency from January 1st to December 31st, 2021.