I’m sitting in the patio of an African dance school in Kampala, Uganda in March 2007 having a great conversation with an American dance teacher, when she tells me about the dance academy she is starting. She asks me to help her put some write-ups together as we brainstorm for ideas. I wake up the next morning and it hits me! Like a wall of bricks! I get it. Over the last 1 ½ years, I’ve traveled to over 20 countries, experiencing local music and dance along the way.
Dance – it’s the universal medium that brings people of any background together.
I danced in rural Uganda with tribal village women, with slum children in Mumbai, India, with middle-class yuppies in Beijing, with elderly couples at a restaurant in Istanbul, and the list goes on. Nothing separated us at that moment because we were not concerned with what language we spoke, how we dressed, what religion we believed in, or what social hierarchy we fit into. We were just sharing, having fun, and being one.
This inspired me to start a dance-based nonprofit organization that integrates people of any and all backgrounds to learn about each others’ cultures through dance.
