Looking for ways to move and be active in this quarantine season? Looking for a creative way to be a climate change advocate? Looking to express your love for our earth? Then look no further than the 2020 National Water Dance.
National Water Dance is “a celebration of arts in action” as explained on their website. Held every year by National Water Dance Projects, the event is “an artist-driven collective of choreographers, dancers, and educators confronting critical water issues facing the United States.” The annual dance centers around a focus that somehow relates to the protection and preservation of water. This year’s focus is on the climate crisis.
More technically speaking, the event involves dancers of all ages and levels of experience in locations across the U.S. (in the past there have been dancers from 32 states and Puerto Rico) all performing simultaneously. This year, due to COVID-19, participating dancers will live-stream their dances on social media from wherever they are on April 18, 2020, at p.m EST.
Check out a video on the event in 2018: https://vimeo.com/282935117
If you would like to participate, here are the things you need to do:
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Follow National Water Dance on Instagram and/or Facebook and let them know you’ll be participating
IG:@nationalwater_dance
FB: facebook.com/nationalwaterdance
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Create your dance! Along with any of your own moves, include these two shared phrases at the beginning and end of your dance so that every dance across the country is linked together. Movements are encouraged to somehow express the climate crisis, however the dancer(s) and choreographer(s) interpret that focus.
Beginning Phrase: https://vimeo.com/386376798
Ending Phrase: https://vimeo.com/386377663
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Livestream your performance on your social media on April 18th at 4 p.m. EST
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Upload or share your video after the live stream while using any of the hashtags #nationalwaterdance, #nationalwaterdance2020, and #dancingforourlives
National Water Dance’s social media will be reposting people’s dances as they come in.
Now more than ever, we are all realizing our physical connection to our ecosystems and recognizing the importance of human connection. So for the 2020 National Water Dance, those participating will be dancing separately together to continue to illustrate these necessities and advocate for change.