Year after year, some of our founding team would get to spend time at the Global Youth Peace Summit. The Summit experience is unlike any on earth. Imagine youth from all over the world coming together for one week to grow as individuals and as a community. So many different beliefs, religions, races, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds and passions. It was surreal and so inspiring, and showed us what is possible.
The Summit was all about magical experiences and each year one of the most memorable things to witness was the joy and connection that came from music and dance. When we gathered and the music started so did the dancing and the dance-offs. Walls came down. Fear and insecurity took a back seat. And the fact that we all didn’t speak the same language quickly became irrelevant. Each time a young person bravely stepped into the middle of the dance circle to do their thing, courage fed courage, and before we knew it we each got out there to throw down our best moves. We all got a chance to simply express ourselves and be ourselves. And it was in those moments that the idea for DanceFight was born.
Our hope is that DanceFight captures that exact spirit and becomes a gathering space where youth from all over the world can co-create a safe and equitable community that’s also inspiring and ridiculously fun!
We also sincerely hope that along the way we help reframe how competition is seen and experienced – where being yourself, letting go of fear of judgment, being courageous, and celebrating your uniqueness is valued way more than simply winning.