Lace up your shoes and get ready to groove on Sunday with lessons from Great on Skates

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Every Sunday, outside Lloyd Hall Recreation Center on Boathouse Row, you’re invited to lace up your skates and join a dance party on wheels. The Great on Skates group hosts a free weekly skate event from noon to 6 p.m., and beginners are welcome. You can even take impromptu lessons.

“We’re skating and vibing,” said India Bernardino, artist and instructor with Great on Skates. “It’s a community environment. We’ll just suck you in! »

Bernardino describes the group as a street-style freestyle skate dance company and team that combines roller skating and dance moves.

“We’re just incorporating skating with dance, culture, music, arts, performances, drumming and all those things together,” Bernardino said.

You may think that joining a group of professional skaters can be intimidating, but you will quickly find a welcoming and inclusive environment. Marquise Bradley, a professional clarinetist, began taking lessons with Great on Skates in October. He said the band members were an inspiration.

“I needed something that still gives me that ability to connect with other people, but also something that I can practice and really enjoy sinking my teeth into in my free time,” Bradley said. “I usually leave feeling really exhilarated.”

Even if you don’t want to participate in the skating and dancing, you can come and watch. Lynn Lasswell, who lives in Center City, said she started following the band on Instagram and is now a fan.

“Everything they do looks like so much fun!” Laswell said.

Great on Skates is like a big family of skaters. But for Bernardino, it’s literally his family. Her father, called Master Jay, taught her everything she knows and he is part of the group.

“Back then, we would go to clubs, we would go dancing in clubs and my dad would be there with his skates. And I was like, ‘Dad, how are you allowed in here with skates?’ lit?’” Bernardino remembers. “Later, as I got older, I learned to mix those two things.”

Her father said skating with Bernardino and his other daughters was an invaluable experience.

“When I first started skating, my kids looked at me funny,” Master Jay said. “Now that they’re adults, they come out and it’s beautiful. You can’t buy that feeling.”

Great on Skates hosts a skate camp for kids third grade and up at MoveMakers Philly. It started June 19 and will continue through August, and Bernardino said children can sign up to attend each week. Visit their website to learn more.