Mark Morris’ choreography has appeared on stages from Lincoln Center to London’s Royal Opera House. But the work of the Mark Morris Dance Group, goes beyond award-winning performances.

“We have an ethic that you serve the community you’re in,” says Lauren Cherubini, director of development and external relations. “We believe that a good life involves access to high quality art.”

The Brooklyn Community Foundation has bolstered that ethic for over a decade, beginning with a grant toward construction of MMDG’s five-story building on Lafayette Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, finished in 2001.

The Community Foundation continues to help MMDG achieve its growing mission. That includes a $25,000 grant this year to underwrite programs that bring dance to under-served Brooklynites by collaborating with, among others, local schools through its Dance, Music and Literacy Project, the New York City Housing Authority, and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group.

Mark Morris often calls the building a “hive,” and on a recent Wednesday it buzzes with activity. But it is on the fourth floor that magic is happening.

In a packed Dance for PD (Parkinson’s disease) class, students fill chairs encircling three instructors, all professional dancers in the company. The program, which offers dance classes with live music to those with varying degrees of PD, came about through an innovative partnership with the Brooklyn Parkinson Group. More than 70 communities worldwide have been inspired by the Brooklyn model to create Dance for PD classes.

The joy the class brings is evident in the students’ focus. One petite woman sits ramrod straight, moving with steady, sure grace. Across the room, an elderly man  with a Yankees hat moves stiff arms carefully back and forth, but he follows every beat.

Instructors encourage caregivers to take the class too. When the class transitions to the ballet barre, a caregiver in purple scrubs stands behind her charge. Each moves a pointed toe to and fro, smiling wide.

“I hope that it will help them physically, but I know that it helps them socially, emotionally,” Cherubini says. “I know that it makes a difference when you feel a part of the world.”

MMDG also works to foster that feeling well beyond Downtown Brooklyn. Cherubini oversees a nascent project in Brownsville, a neighborhood that grapples with some of the borough’s most severe poverty and crime. MMDG works with several organizations to help residents gain better access to everything from pre-natal services to dance and music.

Though in the early stages, these efforts show MMDG’s commitment, with the Community Foundation’s support, to pollinating pieces of Brooklyn far beyond the hive, expanding the possibilities of what great art can do.