Swing Dance the night away under the stars with music from New York’s hottest dance bands on Sunday evenings. Featured styles include swing, tango and salsa. Dance lessons before the live bands go on.

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The River To River Festival takes place each summer from June through August in a many public venues in Downtown New York City (from Chambers Street down to the southern tip of Manhattan). The website lists tons of free things to do including live music, concerts, dance, shows, tours, and speaking engagements.

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Free movies and popcorn Monday nights at 8pm! Please bring your own folding chairs and blankets. The movies are family friendly. Also Wednesdays 7-9pm enjoy free modern dance and salsa lessons at the plaza throughout the summer.

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Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors presents over 100 free performances on the plazas of Lincoln Center in the month of August featuring music, dance, spoken word and fun events for the whole family.

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Central Park is AMAZING in the summer.  Walk around and every few feet there is a new atmosphere.  Check out the bathing beauties on the Great Lawn, Belvedere Castle’s views, dogs dancing in the fountains, or the wonderful smells in the Shakespeare garden. Come as often as possible.

Central Park’s Summerstage holds over a thousand free events each summer. The artists represent a breadth of genres and cultures and perform in an outdoor setting accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. Central Park SummerStage strives to develop audiences’ deepening appreciation for contemporary, traditional, and emerging artists as well as the communities in which these artists originate. Artists this year include Ziggy Marley, Indigo Girls, and TV on the Radio.

There’s also free Tango dancing lessons in the park every Saturday 6-9pm rain or shine. Located at Shakespeare Statue (across from the Columbus Statue at the beginning of Literary Mall – the opposite end of Bethesda Fountain and Summer Stage*) from 6-9pm. If RAIN move to the DAIRY a short distance away.

Free concerts are offered at the Naumburg Bandshell. Artists this year include the Knights, the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, the Naumburg Orchestra, and the Imani Winds.

Try Catch-and-release fishing at the Dana Discovery Center Tuesday through Sunday 10am – 4pm. The Discovery Center provides poles, unbarbed hooks, and bait. A great family activity!

Harlem Meer Performance Festival of Latin, Jazz, World, and Gospel artists on numerous dates (Sundays, June 21 through September 6, 2009). Performances take place at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center (110th St btwn Fifth and Lenox Aves, inside the Park). Call (212) 860-1370 for more information.

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Almost 100 free events for the whole family involving music, dance films, sports at Riverside Park. Summer On the Hudson, one of New York City’s largest free summer festivals, opens with a Irish Dance Festival and continues with the Quadricentennial of the Hudson River: the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of and first journey up New York’s waterway, as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s maiden voyage on a steamboat. Celebratory happenings include the Nieuw York/New York “Movies Under the Stars” series opening July 8, with historically-themed favorites that span the centuries such as the 1993 The Age of Innocence starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer; and special programming on the July-August Kid Acts! Series.

In addition, throughout the summer there will be ongoing sports, wellness and recreation activities for the whole family, from spring into fall, in yoga, kayaking and pilates.

Riverside Park South is a unique combination of greenspace, esplanades, winding pathways, wooden boardwalks, plazas, and ball fields, with panoramic north and south views of the Hudson River. Summer on the Hudson strives to present events that meet the cultural and recreational needs of the community, enrich the daily lives of New Yorkers, and brings diverse groups of people together in a magical setting.

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Annual Brooklyn concert series featuring the best in music, dance, word, and film and good times! Free musical performances (like TV on the Radio and Bonnie Rait) as well as film viewings, and dancing. All performances are free with a $3 suggested contribution.

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LavishMagazine.com’s list of free African dance classes in New York City. We’ve heard that those who do it love it and it is great exercise! Some are more hardcore than others. We especially recommend Nafisa Sharriff’s traditional West African classes on Mondays and Wednesdays at PS 194.  And all before you go because the class times could have changed since post.

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Check out their website for tons of free events this week including book signings, live music, film screenings, and much more.

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The club is one of the best superclubs of NYC for dancing and dance music. Sign up to reserve a table on your birthday and receive complimentary admission for you and your friends as well as a free bottle of champagne and “a gift bag of goodies”.

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