Cambridge Youth Dance Program Launches CityYouth Dance Ensemble — Its Official PerformingCompany

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Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center

Cambridge Youth Dance Program · City Youth Dance Ensemble

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE · July 2026

PRESS RELEASE Cambridge Youth Dance Program Launches City Youth Dance Ensemble — Its Official Performing Company CYDE marks a new chapter in the organization's artistic vision, creating elite performance opportunities for dedicated young dancers while honoring the educational mission that built the program. Somerville, MA — May 2026

Somerville, MA — July 2026 Deborah Mason, Creative Director and Founder of Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center (DMPAC) and Cambridge Youth Dance Program (CYDP), today announced the official launch of City Youth Dance Ensemble (CYDE) — the performing company that marks the next stage in a vision five decades in the making. DMPAC has been the foundation of it all. For fifty years, it has served as the home, the studio, and the standard. The place where Deborah Mason built a culture of serious training, community investment, and artistic excellence. Cambridge Youth Dance Program was established in 2004, growing directly from that foundation, bringing the same commitment to rigor and creativity that has defined DMPAC into a dedicated program for young dancers. Now, that work takes the stage through the City Youth Dance Ensemble. CYDE serves as the official performing company of CYDP, created to give dedicated young dancers a professional-caliber performance platform and to showcase the excellence of this community to a wider audience.

“City Youth Dance Ensemble is the realization of a dream that began fifty years ago in a single studio — a dream rooted in the belief that young people deserve access to serious artistic training, creative expression, and a community that believes in their potential. DMPAC built the foundation, Cambridge Youth Dance Program expanded the opportunity, and now CYDE gives these extraordinary young artists a stage worthy of their dedication, discipline, and talent. This company represents not only where we have been, but where the next generation of dancers can go.” — Deborah Mason · Creative Director & Founder · DMPAC / CYDP / CYDE

The name change is not a re-branding exercise, but it is an accurate description of what the organization has become. As CYDP expanded its reach beyond Cambridge and grew into a performing ensemble of serious artistic standing, the original name no longer captured the full picture. City Youth Dance Ensemble names the reality: a performing company drawing from a wide geography, built on an educational mission that was never limited to one address. CYDE operates as both the organization and its official performing company — presenting work that reflects the excellence, discipline, and creativity of its students and the communities they come from. Training continues at the Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center, which remains the ensemble's home base and studio. Further announcements regarding CYDE's programming, performance season, and auditions will follow. ABOUT DEBORAH MASON PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center has been the home of serious dance training and community-rooted arts education for five decades. Founded and led by Creative Director Deborah Mason, DMPAC is the foundation from which Cambridge Youth Dance Program and City Youth Dance Ensemble were built. It remains the training home of CYDE. ABOUT CITY YOUTH DANCE ENSEMBLE (CYDE) City Youth Dance Ensemble (CYDE) is the official performing company of Cambridge Youth Dance Program, founded by Deborah Mason. Rooted in five decades of artistic excellence at Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center and twenty years of youth dance education through Cambridge Youth Dance Program, CYDE develops serious young dancers through rigorous training and high-level performance opportunities, with a deep commitment to the communities they come from.

MEDIA CONTACT: media@dpen.net

Contact Deborah Mason, Creative Director & Founder Organization DMPAC / Cambridge Youth Dance Program / CYDE

Email office@cydp.org

Phone (617) 616-5124

Web cydp.org

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