Sid Grant
Sid Grant’s ballroom dancing career has spanned nearly 20 years of both instruction and performance. Beginning in the late ’80s with the Fred Astaire Dance Studios of NJ, he captured the Novice Professional title at the regional championships in Atlantic City. Moving to New York City in 1990, Sid became an independent instructor – dancing regularly with clients/students at the famous Roseland Ballroom and Rainbow Room while teaching privately on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he currently runs the argentine tango program at Pulse Dance Studio.

In 1995, Sid was cast in the first regional production of the hit Broadway musical Grand Hotel in the part of the Gigolo -- a role originated by Pierre Dulaine. In 2001, Sid joined Pierre Dulaine’s American Ballroom Theater Company to facilitate the expansion of his “Dancing Classrooms” program. This program was featured in the award-winning documentary film Mad Hot Ballroom (in which Sid appears) and fictionalized in the hit movie Take The Lead, which recently came out on DVD, featuring the victory of Sid’s students from Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the New York City Championship “Colors of the Rainbow” Team Match. Additionally, he has appeared as a principle dancer on Law and Order: Criminal Intent and Mona Lisa Smile, in which he assisted training Julia Roberts and her cast, and danced with Academy Award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden (among other film and television credits).

For the last year and-a-half, Sid was the co-Artistic Director of the ABrT Youth Dance Company which represents the organization at a number of highly publicized appearances including PBS, The Today Show (dancing with Antonio Banderas), Bette Midler’s annual NYC Conservancy Dinner Dance, Denise Rich and Ivana Trump’s “Disco & Diamonds” Cancer Research Charity Gala, and most notably, a personal invitation from Marvin Hamlisch to appear at the 35th anniversary of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where his company of a dozen child couples received the only standing ovation of the evening! Sid continues to conceive and coordinate all of the choreography for the 2007-2008 Youth Company, which recently appeared at the basketball half- time show at Madison Square Garden. His own performances include Broadway, off-Broadway and regional appearances. This school year, he returned to teaching his own Ballroom Basics program in Harlem and elsewhere. “Sid’s Kids” will perform at the festival.

In addition to his artistic accomplishments on stage, television and in film, Sid graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers College, where he was named Outstanding Graduate in the School of Journalism and Communication. He has worked for AT&T Headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ, Ziff Davis Publishing and CMP Media in New York (among others) and continues to consult in the field of marketing promotion and corporate communications. Aside from his professional writing, Sid is a published poet, currently working on his first screenplay.

Most recently, Sid was appointed to the adjunct faculty at the prestigious School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center, where he teaches master classes in ballroom and latin fundamentals to the aspiring young dancers. He continues to instruct privately, both here and abroad (Europe, Hong Kong, Mexico), specializing in the Argentine Tango, and traveling to Buenos Aires several times a year. He lives in New York and Santa Fe, and is a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild.