Brooklyn Morning — Chinese Dance Lessons in Sunset Park

By Abigail Ronck

Every morning a group of at least 20 neighborhood women meet outside the Sunset Park Recreation Center between 8:30 and 11 to perform traditional Chinese dances in coordinated line form, says a resident by the name of Surant. They do it for exercise she says, bouncing up and down and warming her ears as she prepares to lead a class. In tentative English she tells me to join. It is repetitive and not too hard to learn.

Inside men and women play early morning ping pong as center director Karen Gripper sits by and watches. Asked if the center has been closed over the weekend she says, “Gosh no!”