Urban Stomp: Dreams & Defiance on the Dance Floor

Design Team:
Photographs courtesy Brad Farwell and C. Butler

Press: “...you can choose a record and put it on a turntable. So far, so ordinary. But wait. Here, spinning the record doesn’t just cue music. People — in video form — appear all around you, dancing and inviting you to join them”...“Participation is built into the exhibition because the museum is trying to be more experiential, but also because the subject is dance..” The New York Times

April 2025 – February 2026

Urban Stomp invites visitors to move through more than a century of NYC dance history—literally—from polka to foxtrot, salsa to cumbia, and more. Designing this experience, I embraced motion, rhythm, and atmosphere at every turn, activating the space through 23 step-by-step dance tutorials and 11 immersive video installations featuring music and choreography, projected onto floors and walls to encourage audience participation. Custom dance floor graphics and subtle floor lighting guided movement while reinforcing tempo and style. Materials and finishes—mirrored panels, soft wood flooring, and vintage-inspired lighting—echoed the feeling of iconic social dance spaces. This experiential design was aimed at sparking joy, movement, and a deeper understanding of the cultural significance of dance as a social and political force in the city.

Marissa Martonyi

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