Catching up to the work of Tribecan Tracy Straus, who has taken her years of dance performance and teaching to create Bija Beat, a high-energy, all-levels dance class held twice a month in her loft on Duane.

The idea first came to her as a way to support a non-profit dance program she runs for kids, Celebrate the Beat, and she got a fellowship from NYU to develop it. It’s now turned into its own thing where folks come for a dose of dance energy: “It’s serotonin-inducing and memory-building and community-building — those things we are all longing for,” Tracy said when we met up at Bluestone Lane. (“Bija” means “seed” in Sanskrit — and the idea of the classes was the “seed of joy and creativity.”)

A native New Yorker, Tracy went to college in Michigan for dance, and when she returned here — to act and dance and waitress and get her master’s degree — she discovered the National Dance Institute, or NDI, founded by Jacques d’Amboise to bring dance performance to kids in public schools. (The program has long operated at PS 234.)

“I went to see their program in Bed Stuy and there were a thousand children on the stage — I had never seen anything like it,” she said. “It was totally inclusive and joyful and bringing people to the arts in the most incredible way.” She started as an assistant choreographer in 1992 and was the associate artistic director by 2000; in 2013 she founded a sister program, Celebrate the Beat, with the Aspen Ballet in Colorado.

She splits her time between NYC and Colorado, and has for more than two decades.

The classes here for adults — up to 30 at a time — implement the NDI method with live music and games and a way to sequence movement that is good for the brain. The style of dance is a blend — she describes it as theater dance with movements that anyone can do. And the classes include coffee and bites afterwards “for people to be in community.” Classes are $30 each; see the calendar here.

“It’s a place for people to come together who have a passion for dance and art,” Tracy said. (She also does corporate events and retreats.) “I do believe these ongoing classes will scratch an itch for people who share my love of dance that is accessible and rooted in art and is a healthy approach to wellness.”