International Dance Day

In 1982 the International Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), created International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the 29th April.

The date commemorates the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727 - 1810), the creator of modern ballet.

Every year a message from a well-known dance personality is circulated throughout the world. The intention of International Dance Day and the Message is to bring all Dance together on this occasion, to celebrate this art form and revel in its universality, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together in peace and friendship with a common language - DANCE.

Here is this years message by Choreographer Mats Ek :

What is dance? If you answer that, you are not trustworthy. But let me try, anyway: dance is thinking with your body.
Is it necessary to think with your body? Not for survival, perhaps, but for living. There are so many thoughts that only the body can think. Other things, like peace, might be more important than dance. But then we will need dance to celebrate peace. And to exorcise the demons of war, like Nijinsky did. Emma Goldman, the anarchist, maybe said it best : a revolution that does not allow me to dance, is not worth fighting for.

The god Shiva created the universe with his dance. But dance is the opposite of all divine pretentions. Dance is an everlasting attempt, like writing in water. Dance is not life, but it keeps alive all the little things that the big thing is made of.

You can have this message in different languages if you wanna spread it...