Franklin Diaz

Born in the Dominican Republic into a musical family of singers and instrumentalists, Franklin Diaz fell in love with movement as a child and began teaching himself to dance at four years old. He would later grow up in the Bronx, shaped by Dominican culture, New York, music, and a childhood that was not always easy.

Dance became more than something Franklin did. It became the way he understood the world.

NEW YORK MADE THE DANCER.

In the 1990s, Franklin entered the lineage of New York mambo, training with Eddie Torres, while refusing to stay inside a single tradition. He studied modern and ballet at The Ailey School and pursued Afro-Cuban movement, flamenco, jazz and other forms with the same obsession he brought to mambo.

Mambo. Son. Pachanga. Cha-cha. Afro. Boogaloo. Funk. Flamenco. Jazz. Modern. Contemporary. Theater.

Over decades, those worlds stopped existing separately in his body. They became Franklin.

THEN THE WORLD CAME CALLING.

Franklin went from the New York mambo scene to stages alongside artists including Celia Cruz, Tito Puente and the Fania All-Stars, and to teaching and performing internationally. His dancing became known for something difficult to imitate: extraordinary musicality, physical freedom and a movement language unmistakably his own. He has spent more than two decades pushing past the idea that becoming a better dancer simply means learning more steps.

HOUSE OF DANCE IS WHAT COMES NEXT.

House of Dance brings the worlds Franklin has spent a lifetime studying into one living practice, from the traditions that formed him to original work like FD Barre and FD Flow Lab.

Not so students can learn to dance like Franklin. So they can discover what Franklin has spent his life pursuing:

how to become an artist in your own body.