$FREE

Grab your family, connect with friends and join Batingua Arts for a fun, dynamic and expressive Afro Soca dance class. This fitness class will encourage all ages to get up and move to the latest sounds of Soca with high energy electrifying movement.

Persephone DaCosta is the founder, artistic director and choreographer for Batingua Arts. DaCosta’s family heritage come from Trinidad. As dancing is in her blood, her training began at the early age of 6. She attended the South East Queens House of music where she studied Ballet, Tap and Jazz. This small community arts school planted the seed and set the foundation of performing arts for DaCosta. 

In DaCosta's freshman year in college at Stony Brook University that she was introduced to traditional African Dance. She began studying dance more seriously by performing in Stony Brook's Staller Center dance showcases. She completed her masters degree with a focus on "Community Development through the Arts." As DaCosta began to emerge in the arts, others began to notice her talents – her quick grasp of steps, rhythm and performance technique. 

DaCosta began training with renown Ivorian master dancer and drummer Vado Diamonde and danced for his company Kotchegna. Later she joined Bambara Dance and Drum Company and Mikerline’s Haitian Folklore Dance Company. DaCosta has traveled near and far with these companies and performed in many prestigious places. In 2007, DaCosta decided to take her passion for dance and love for youth and combine them by becoming a dance teacher for the Board of Education. She is a certified dance teacher and works at Metropolitan Corporate Academy in downtown Brooklyn, and is preserving educating and celebrating Afro Caribbean culture through Batingua Arts.