Urban Stomp: Dreams & Defiance on the Dance Floor (April 11, 2025-February 22, 2026), is a first-of-its-kind exhibition exploring over 200 years of social dance in New York City — from the ballrooms and bars of the 19th century to today’s parks, living rooms, and clubs. The exhibition highlights how the city’s dance cultures — and the spaces they animate — foster collective joy, resistance, and new social possibilities that reverberate far beyond the dance floor.

The exhibition builds upon six years of research, programming, and relationship-building through the ongoing Urban Stomp project, which began in 2018 (Click here to view the documentary short). Mr. Washington’s professional relationships were instrumental in securing objects and archival materials from a range of institutions and community organizations, including: Institute of Jazz Studies, Louis Armstrong House Museum & Archives, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library of Performing Arts, Celia Cruz Foundation, Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro), Royal House of LaBeija, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Remix⟷Culture, CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, Apollo Theater, Karla Flórez School of Dance, Think!Chinatown, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, and private lenders such as Rubén Blades, DJ Rekha, Judy Santos, and more. In addition to objects, Mr. Washington produced over 20+ filmed dance tutorials with the assistance of Earthbound Studios. The exhibition includes:

• 6 themed exhibition sections

• Over 200 years of social dance and music histories in New York City

• Over 300 objects on display, including photographs, paintings, regalia, costumes, ephemera, monuments, installations, instruments, films, and graphic works

• 8 interactive screens throughout the galleries

• 23 video dance tutorials

• Immersive Dance Floor with 11 dance floor videos with music for audiences to follow along

• 90 culture bearers and dancers featured in the tutorials and filmed dance floor segments

• 35 curated film excerpts showcasing social dance cultures and practices

• Selection of the Exhibition’s Public & Education Programs: Continuum Flow Dance Workshop with LaTasha Barnes, Royal Bloom Vogue Ball, From the Dance Floor to the Classroom: Movement as a Pedagogical Tool, and A+/P Credit Course: People of New York: How Individuals Shape History

In the role as Curator, Mr. Washington’s ethnographic research and relationship building allowed him to include several objects in the exhibition that have not been displayed before in a museum or publicly. A few examples of the exhibition objects include:

• Louis Armstrong’s trumpet and original diary/manuscript

• Rubén Blades’ custom 1977 Fania All-Stars jacket

• Benny Goodman’s clarinet

• Lester Young’s saxophone

• Billie Holiday’s jewels

• Cootie Williams’ cornet

• Miles Davis’ green brass trumpet

• Jack Teagarden’s trombone

• Celia Cruz’s dress and assortment of 6 of some of her most iconic shoes

• Tito Puentes custom timbales and suit

• Eddie Torres jacket as a the director of the Tito Puente Dancers

• Big Daddy Kane’s Dapper Dan sweatsuit

• Original objects from Rock Steady, Dynamic Rockers, & NYC Breakers

• Thunderbird Native American Dancers’ regalia

• Eddie Torres jacket as a the director of the Tito Puente Dancers   

• Original ball dress worn at the Prince of Wales Ball in 1865

• 1903 Thomas Edison phonograph with original sound horn