Celebrating God and the beauty of dance

Every year on April 29^th, dance lovers across the world celebrate International Dance Day.

The observance was founded in 1982 by the International Dance Committee and it takes place under the auspicies of Unesco.

The intention of the “International Dance Day” is to celebrate Dance, to revel in the universality of this art form, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together with a common language - Dance.

Each year, an outstanding choreographer or dancer is invited to give a message on Dance. The choice, this year, fell on the young Belgian-Moroccon choreographer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui who released a beautiful message entitled “Celebrate the never-ending choreography of life”.

He says that he believes that that dance may be one of the most honest forms of expression for us to cherish: because when people dance, whether in a ballet performance, a hip-hop battle, an underground contemporary show or just in a discotheque, there are seldom any lies deployed, any masks worn. People reflect each other constantly, but when they dance, perhaps what they reflect most is that moment of honesty.

He also expresses his view of a dance performance as a celebration of co-existence, a way to give and make space and time for each other. We tend to forget this, - Cherkaoui points out - but the underlying beauty in a performance is that it is primarily the convergence of a mass of people, seated one next to the other, all sharing the same moment. There is nothing private about it; a performance is an extremely social experience. All of us assembled for this ritual, which is our bond with the performance, our bond with the same present.


In keeping with the theme of dance, dance-lover Linda Bordoni got in touch with a Seminarian at the Pontifical North American College who used to be a professional tap dancer, his name is David Rider.

In the interview Rider talks about his life as a professional tap dancer, about his conversion and vocation, of his love for Pope John Paul II, and about using his talent to enrich his future life as a priest...

listen to the interview...