International Dance Day
INTERNATIONAL
Dance Day (IDD) is celebrated annually on April 29 to mark the birth anniversary of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet. Every year, a message from a well-known dance personality is disseminated worldwide to bring people together in peace and friendship with the common language — dance, and celebrate this art form and revel in its universality — its ability to transcend all cultural, ethnic, and political divides.
For 2019, Karima Mansour, a famed dancer, choreographer, and educator of Egypt, shares her invaluable insights on this art form: “Dance is where culture is shared and borders fall into the space of inclusion and unity, through the unspoken language of universality… Dance is a healer. Dance is where humanity can meet. I invite people to go beyond borders, beyond identity crisis, beyond nationalism, and beyond frames. May we free ourselves of those limitations and find the movement and momentum in that universal language.” Mansour founded her company MAAT for Contemporary Dance in 1999. It was the first independent dance company to be established in her country. Since then she has created over 20 full choreographic works that continue to be performed in various international festivals, as well as more than 20 various collaborations in theater and film.
In the Philippines, Presidential Proclamation No. 154, s. 1993, declared the Fourth Week of April as National Dance Week (NDW) throughout the country and has tasked the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, in coordination with the Department of Education and other cultural organizations/agencies, to lead in the implementation of activities to mark the celebration. The international dance festival, dubbed DanceXchange, is considered one of the banner projects of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Other activities held to mark IDD and NDW include dance workshops, dance forums, and dance competitions.
IDD was created in 1982 by the International Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute (ITI), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Since then, IDD has promoted and made people aware of the value of dance in all its forms around the world and enabled the dance community to promote their work on a broad scale, so that governments and opinion leaders are aware of the value and importance of dance in all its forms and support it.
In celebrating International Dance Day this year, Mansour reminds us that “In this day and age where connection and connectivity have taken on new meanings and where we are at our lowest point in our ability to connect, dance remains the most sought-after action to help us re-establish that lost connection. For it is when we connect with ourselves when we listen to our inner rhythm, that we are really able to establish a connection with others and communicate.”
Dance as a universal language of expression and art form is endowed with an immense power to tear down walls that tend to divide people and nations, and build bridges that tend toward unity amidst diversity through a better understanding and acceptance of everyone’s and every culture’s uniqueness.