29th April: International Dance Day

 The International Dance Day  was introduced in 1982 by the International Dance Council  and is celebrated yearly, on April 29. The date is not linked to a particular person or a particular form of dance, although it's also the day when  Jean-Georges Noverre  was born . Jean-Georges Noverre  (29 April 1727  – 19 October 1810) was a French dancer and balletmaster, and is generally considered the creator of ballet d'action, a precursor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century.  The main purpose of Dance Day events is to attract the attention of the wider public to the art of dance.

Every year, one of the most important dance personalities writes the International Dance Day Message . For 2017 the message is from the notes of Trisha Brown (November 25, 1936 – March 18, 2017). Trisha Brown was an American choreographer and dancer and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater and the postmodern dance movement.

“ I became a dancer because of my desire to fly. The transcendence of gravity was always something that moved me. There is no secret meaning in my dances. They are a spiritual exercise in a physical form. Dance communicates and expands the universal language of communication, giving birth to joy, beauty and the advancement of human knowledge. Dance is about creativity…again and again…in the thinking, in the making, in the doing, and in the performing. Our bodies are a tool for expression and not a medium for representation. This notion liberates our creativity, which is the essential lesson and gift of art-making. The life of an artist does not end with age, as some critics believe. Dance is made of people, people and ideas. As an audience, you can take the creative impulse home with you and apply it to your daily life.”

We love dancing, we love the way dancers communicate and express their feelings  with their bodies and we try to imitate them,  because we need the joy and the beauty of dance to make our life more interesting.