How can we dance when the world is burning

BEDS ARE BURNING - Midnight Oil

BEDS ARE BURNING - Midnight Oil - LETRAS.COM

Home Rock'n'Roll Midnight Oil Beds Are Burning

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

The time has come to say fairs fair
to pay the rent, now to pay our share

Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In 45 degrees

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

The time has come to say fair's fair
To pay the rent, now to pay our share
The time has come, a fact's a fact
It belongs to them, let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

Letras Academy

Pronunciation dictionary

Steam
Lives
Holden
Give
Back

See more words

Copy link

Beds Are Burning
The Dead Heart
Truganini
Blue Sky Mine
My Country
Bullroarer
Cemitery In My Mind
Comfortable Place on the Couch
Coom Ground
Forgotten Years
Jimmy Sharman's Boxers
Naked Flame
Nobody's Child
Put Down That Weapon
Redneck Wonderland
River Runs Red
Sell My Soul
The Last Of The Diggers
Time to Heal
Antarctica

Related playlists

See more playlists

Songs for when the world is burning – Good is Better

Last week I was tasked with selecting a song to play during an environmental communications guest lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles. A song to summarize the world burning. Finding anything at all that adequately speaks the unprecedented crisis and tragedy that my country is living through was quite a task.

My first thought was ‘Beds Are Burning’, that classic 1980s anthem from Midnight Oil, whose lead singer Peter Garrett, aptly, served a brief stint as Australia’s federal Minister for the Environment (during which he saved my childhood river from being dammed, but that’s another story). It’s quintessentially Australian and it references things burning, so that should do the job, right? But listening and lyric reading, it didn’t fit the bill. For a start it’s about Aboriginal land rights. But more than this, the chorus laments: ‘How can we dance when our earth is turning? / How do we sleep while our beds are burning?’ The bushfire crisis has not come about from neglect. It is not dancing and sleeping that got us here. It’s your fault and mine, the micro-decisions that we make are breaking the planet, or sometimes – graciously – protecting it. And, big picture, these fires are the result of intentional and eyes wide open climate policy that reneges on national responsibilities to reduce carbon emissions and implement restorative initiatives to try to undo – as is possible – some of the damage done.

Speaking of ‘Eyes Wide Open’, that’s the title of another song that made my shortlist. This one from Gotye, the Belgian-Australian pop singer made famous by his falling-out-of-love ditty ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’. But I passed on ‘Eyes Wide Open’ because I can’t accept the lyrics. It’s a song for the end of the world as we know it –
‘So this is the end of the story, / Everything we had, everything we did, / Is buried in dust, / And this dust is all that’s left of us. / But only a few ever worried.’
Although my country has been burning to death since the fire season began in August 2019 – before Summer even arrived, and it burns still, and the loss of life will never be able to be counted, I will not accept that we’ve walked the plank, at least not yet. There is an ample supply of credible science showing us how to turn the wreck around. It’s time – well past time – to pay attention.

The fire crisis fills me with grief, and with rage. In such circumstances, my musical prescription is almost always hiphop. So my ears turn to The Herd’s ‘Emergency’, which is apt –
‘It was the dumbest thing we could have known / We take and take ’til there was no more / Justify the human breed. We are blinded by our wants and needs / So the seas will swirl, disease be rife, the soil became dust and / dust become life as we know it / And you denied it, And yet you told me you had a plan / And you told me you had a plan / This is an emergency!
That was 2008. I can’t stand how little has improved since then. I play A.B. Original. I play Urthboy. I briefly consider The Herd’s ‘77%’ but even though the conflagration is grounds for swearing mightily I can’t bring myself to play the words ‘I f**ing hate myself, take “Aussie” from my name / Wake up, this country needs a f**ing shake-up / Wake up, these c**s need a shake-up’. I play Hilltop Hoods and Thundamentals and whilst the baselines meet the pounding of my climate-anxious heart, nothing fits the bill as THE SONG to play at the start of class.

And then, I find it. A song that was written about another evil that plagues my country – racism, but that is – inadvertently – deeply pertinent to the fire crisis too. The song is ‘Every Day My Mother’s Voice’ written by Paul Kelly and performed by him with another Aussie music legend Dan Sultan. You should stop reading now and listen to it. Wrap yourself in its fiercely strong embrace and then loop back here so I can tell you about what it says to me about the global meltdown that’s taking place on Australian soil right now.

‘Every day the sun comes up / Like the day before’ the song opens as shivers traverse my spine. With air pollution levels at global highs due to the fires, the Aussie sun may have been obscured but it does, still, rise. As must we. Fixing all the brokenness that these fires represent demands it of us, as individuals and governments and corporations. This is not business as usual, and even with the comfort of the cyclical promise that the sun will rise each morning and that ‘Every night the stars come up / Just like the night before’ we must not nestle into thinking that once the flames are extinguished life will go back to normal. It won’t and it mustn’t.

‘Every day my mother’s voice / Talks to me / Every day I make my choice/ What to do and how to be’. Mother Earth. Her communication through these fires is loud, clear, and heart-wrenching. The only answer here is to address climate change at every scale we can. To plant trees. To challenge industrialized agriculture in climate-inappropriate locations (yes cotton industry and the rest, I’m looking at you). To reduce carbon emissions dramatically. To make space for indigenous cultural burning practices to become mainstream again, two hundred and thirty-two years of invasion and it’s well past time that we learned from the oldest civilization on earth how fire should be done right.

‘Every day I build my life / On her sacrifice’. Could we do a little less of that? These fires are a clarion call to interrupt the relentless planetary destruction that we’ve been so busy with since the industrial revolution. Enough, already.

‘Many roads I could have gone down’. Our choice of roads will matter. We need the flames out and the raging fire of social change to burn ever brighter. In the aftermath of these fires – and that is still a long way off – let’s not allow politics and the corporate industrial economy to obfuscate the profound ecological, economic, and social issues that these fires are a mere symptom of.

‘Every night I drain my cup / Lay me down and close the door’. Watching the world burn is exhausting. And though this exhaustion pales compared to the suffering of people in the fire fronts – fighting fires, losing lives and homes and stock and pets and hope – we must each lay down sometimes to rest. Ecological grief, ‘solastalgia’ as philosopher Glenn Albrecht named it in 2005, is an affliction we all must suffer, and tend, and wield, in these – literally – unprecedented times.

Listen:
‘Beds Are Burning’ (1987) by Midnight Oil
https://open.spotify.com/track/1CtAzw53AIXKjAemxy4b1j
‘Eyes Wide Open’ (2010) by Gotye
https://open.spotify.com/track/5y1M7jCvL2Pi6IcxypEl9V
‘Emergency‘ (2008) by The Herd https://open.spotify.com/track/4jdVR3vs1Uh5aN8A0eIzYR
‘77%’ (2003) by The Herd https://open.spotify.com/track/6hYoip0BKDOkznLHbaQCqG
‘Every Day My Mother’s Voice’ (2019) by Paul Kelly and Dan Sultan https://open.spotify.com/track/04LrJnL82fy50iYSzt8UCU

Read:
How scientists are coping with our planet falling to pieces:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/12/how-scientists-are-coping-with-environmental-grief
A stocktake on the enormity of death:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/14/a-billion-animals-the-australian-species-most-at-risk-from-the-bushfire-crisis
A historical explanation from Professor Tom Griffiths about why we must acknowledge these fires as unprecedented:
https://insidestory. org.au/savage-summer/
Why we must seek indigenous knowledge, urgently:
https://time.com/5764521/australia-bushfires-indigenous-fire-practices/

Do:
Donate to the Australian Red Cross, WIRES, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, the South Australia Bushfire Appeal, or the Country Fire Authority of Victoria.

Change something about your life: use more public transit, have difficult conversations, reduce single-use plastics, put your money in a more ethical bank, write to your elected officials and demand climate action.

Discern your way through the reporting on the fires and be alert to false and misleading coverage, which is creeping its way deep into people’s thinking about the crisis. We must all check and challenge spurious claims including two current furphies making the rounds: that the fires were acts of arson and that this is just a rough but normal Aussie summer. Neither could be less true, or damaging.

Photo by Lukas Coch/Reuters, ‘Amid an early-morning smoky haze, a man cleans the forecourt of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Jan. 5.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/01/12/australia-air-poses-threat-people-are-rushing-hospitals-cities-choked-by-smoke/

Lyrics Unknown - Learn to dance translation, lyrics, video, clip

Who is cooler?

Unknown

WaP.Ka4Ka.Ru

Lose - stand in a circle, hands on the belt.

1. Learn to dance, - "Spring"
Santa Claus asked us,
We can not refuse, - They threaten the finger
The dance is spinning!

The Christmas tree is burning with fire - fingers are clenched into a fist - unclenched, at the same time
New Year is coming, raising and lowering hands.
We invite and call - get up in pairs, join hands.
To the children's round dance!

Chorus:

Santa Claus, stand with the kids - spinning in pairs to the right side
Now sing along and spin around with the boys,
And look at the girls, don't forget to call - spinning in pairs to the left side
And we will learn to dance together with you !

Lose - clap your hands (play "patties")

2. Tree, wave a branch - wave your hands, up, down
Spin with us together!
Blink with lights - fingers clench into a fist - unclench, at the same time
Smile for children! raising and lowering hands.

We'll teach you how to dance - "Put your foot on the heel"
Grandfather, you now,
We can even show you - stand in pairs, hold hands.
Children's master class!

Chorus:

Santa Claus, stand with the kids - spin in pairs to the right side
Now sing and spin with the boys,
And look at the girls, don't forget to call - spin in pairs to the left side
And we will learn to dance together!

Losing - clapping (playing patty) Losing - are in a circle, hands on the belt.

1. Learn to dance, - “Spring”
Santa Claus asked us
We can not refuse - They threaten a finger
Dance spun!

Herringbone burns with fire - fingers clench into a fist - unclench, at the same time
New Year is coming, raising and lowering hands.
We invite and call - get up in pairs, join hands.
In the children's dance!

Chorus:

Santa Claus, become with the kids - spinning in pairs to the right side
Now go ahead and go around with the boys,
And look at the girls, do not forget to call - spinning in pairs to the left
And we will learn to dance with you!

Losing - clap their hands (play "ladushki")

2. Elka, waving a twig, - waving their hands, up, down
Spin with us!
Flickering flashes - fingers clench into a fist - unclench, at the same time
Children smile! raising and lowering hands.

We will teach to dance, - "Put your foot on the heel"
Grandpa, you now,
We can even show - they stand in pairs, join hands.
Children's master class!

Chorus:

Losing - CLAP Their Hands (Play Ladushki)

Download

Dance Day Messages - Live Dancing

In 1982, the Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute at UNESCO proposed to celebrate 29April International Dance Day. International Dance Day serves to bring all Dances together, celebrate this art form and rejoice in its ability to cross all political, cultural and ethnic boundaries, its ability to unite people in the name of friendship and peace, allowing them to speak the same language - the language of DANCE. Every year, world-famous dancers and choreographers write a "Message" dedicated to the Day of Dance, dance festivals are held all over the world.

Message for International Dance Day 2022 from Kang Siu-jin, Korean ballerina

The Covid-19 catastrophe has stopped life as we freely knew it, and in the midst of this tragedy, we need to rethink the meaning of “dance” and “dancers”. In the distant past, dance was the main means of expression and communication through gestures; it has become a performance art that touches the soul and inspires the audience. This is the art of the moment, which is difficult to restore to its original form after completion, because it is created by the whole body and soul. The dance consists of ephemeral moments, and the dancers are destined to be in motion forever. However, Covid-19limited and even blocked the art of dance in its original form.
Although the situation is improving, dance performances are still largely limited. It makes us cherish precious memories of the times when dance and dancers sparkled like jewels, conveying human anguish and anxiety, will and hope for life, and illuminating the world.
It is equally important to recall that during the aftermath of the Black Death in medieval Europe, the ballet Giselle, depicting love beyond death, was performed at the Paris Opera on June 28, 1841, to a stormy response. Since then, Giselle has been performed throughout Europe and around the world to console and encourage the souls of humanity devastated by the pandemic. It also reflects my understanding of what was first demonstrated in that very performance of Giselle, that the magnificent spirit of the ballerina is trying to escape the weight of the world's adversity.
The lonely and weary audience yearns for the sympathy and consolation of the dancers. As dancers, we believe that the flapping of our wings brings hope to the hearts of those who love the art of dance and gives them the courage to overcome this pandemic.
My heart is already starting to beat faster.

International Dance Day Message 2020 by Gregory Vuyani MAQOMA, South Africa Dancer, actor, choreographer and dance educator:

Message 2020 from South African dancer, choreographer and teacher Gregory Vuyani Makoma.

During a recent interview, I had to think deeply about dance: What does it mean to me? Answering, I was forced to reconsider my whole path and realized that it was all about the goal; each day offers a new challenge to face and it is through dance that I try to make sense of the world.

We are going through unimaginable tragedies in our time, which I can best describe as a post-human era. More than ever, we must dance with a purpose to remind the world that humanity still exists. Purpose and empathy must transcend years of the undeniable virtual landscape of extinction that engenders a catharsis of universal sorrow in order to conquer sadness, a difficult reality that continues to permeate the lives of those who face death, rejection and poverty.

More than ever, our dance must send a strong message to world leaders and those charged with the security and betterment of human conditions, that we are an army of angry thinkers and our goal is to change the world one step at a time. once. Dance is freedom, and through our found freedom, we must free others from the traps they face in different parts of the world. Dance is not politics, but it becomes political because it carries a human connection in its fabric and reacts to circumstances in an attempt to restore human dignity.

As we dance with our bodies, whirl through space, and connect together, we become a force of motion, intertwining hearts, touching souls, and providing the healing we desperately need. And the goal becomes the one-headed hydra of the invincible and indivisible dance.

All we need now is more dancing!!!

International Dance Day Message 2019 by Karima Mansour

In the beginning there was movement… and since the beginning of time, dance has been a powerful form of expression and celebration. It was found on the frescoes of Egyptian pharaohs and has been inspiring dancers since the beginning of time. Through dance, people spoke to the many gods and goddesses of dance and all the meanings that they carried with them, such as balance, which is associated with justice, musicality, tone, individual and cosmic consciousness, and much more.

I once read: “It was believed that the dance in the time of the pharaohs uplifted the spirit of the dancers and the audience, spectators and participants. Music and dance appealed to the highest impulses of human nature and gave consolation in disappointments and losses.

Movement is the language we all speak. Movement is a universal language that belongs to everyone, as long as our senses are open and we listen. The willingness to listen is what is needed, to listen without wanting to interfere, to listen without judgment, to listen in silence and to let the movement pass through the body right now, because everything inside and around us is in motion, in constant motion. At this point, the body does not lie because it listens to its truth and expresses it.

Listening to the beating of our heart, we can dance the dance of life, which requires movement, flexibility and adaptability, constantly changing choreography.

In these days, in this age, when connection and connectedness take on a new meaning and where we are at the lowest level of our ability to connect. .. Dance remains the most sought-after activity that helps us restore lost connections. Dance brings us back to our roots, to a sense of culture, but also leads us on a direct, sensual, personal, essential and heartfelt path, allowing us to remain social animals. Therefore, when we connect with ourselves, when we listen to our inner rhythm, then we are able to connect with other people and communicate.

In the dance, cultures unite and boundaries disappear in the space of inclusion of everyone and unity, through a universal language without words.

The body is an instrument of expression, a vessel for our voice, our thoughts and feelings, our history, our being and existence, our longing for expression and connection that manifests itself in movement.

Dance is a space that allows a person to connect with their truth, for which a space of silence is needed. Dance allows us to connect and feel wholeness and only this feeling can bring peace and with peace comes silence and in silence we can hear, speak and through silence we learn to dance our truth and this is where the dance becomes necessary.

In movement and dance we can move from vertical to horizontal, from top to bottom and vice versa. In dance and movement, chaos can be created and transformed. Or not. It is a space where we are able to create our own realities and fleeting, ephemeral moments, one after the other. Moments that can stay in our memory, touch us, inspire and change our lives and the lives of others. This is the power of true expression and this is the power of dance.

Dance heals. In dance we can meet humanity.

I invite people to go beyond borders, beyond identity crisis, beyond nationalism and boundaries. Let's break free from these limitations and find movement and momentum in this universal language. I invite everyone to dance to the rhythm of their heart, to dance from their truth, because from this inner movement an inner revolution is born and real changes take place.

International Dance Day Message 2018 by Ohad Naharin:

When I dance, I am in the moment. I listen to the full range of sensations and allow this listening to become fuel for feelings, forms and content. And yet we must always remember where we come from. When I was asked what my works are about, at first I answered that they speak for themselves. That all the elements together create their story. The dance tells about volume, subtlety and explosive power. It is a study of movement, its organization and structure. Laughter at oneself, dynamics, exaggeration and understatement, the connection between pleasure and effort, as well as the sublimation of the madness, passion and fantasy of each dancer into a clear form. At its very best, a dance can be flawless, even if it is far from perfect. We need to resist the conservative and conventional thinking rooted in dance education and training, to let go of old ideas for new, better ones. And we must always remember to dance every day, at least a little... And we must always remember to dance every day, at least a little... and never in front of a mirror.

International Dance Day Message 2017 by Trisha Brown:

I became a dancer because I wanted to fly. I have always been inspired by defying gravity. There is no secret meaning in my dances. They are spiritual exercises in physical form.

Dance is communication, it expands the universal language of communication, it creates joy, beauty and increases human knowledge. Dance... it's about creativity... again and again... in thinking, in creating, in action and in performance. Our bodies are instruments of expression and not intermediaries for display. This understanding frees our ability to create, which is the essence and gift of creating art.

An artist's life does not end with age, as some critics believe. Dance is made of people, people and ideas. as viewers, we can take the creative impulse with us and apply it to our daily lives.

International Dance Day - April 29, 2016

Author's author: Lemi Ponifasio, Samoa / New Zealand

Karakia
(Prayer)
Turn to Cosmos
Source of Divine
Persons of 9019 people can see ours children

entanglement of everything above around below
connects together
our flesh, bones
and memory

The earth, rotating,
makes masses of people move
turtles are in silent expectation

the heart is wounded 9019 dance

the movement of justice

Translation into Russian by: Julia Ardashnikova

International Dance Day - April 29, 2014

Every artist is proud of his art.
Each artist will always defend that art form, the meeting with which changed his whole life.
The very one that he gains and loses and is eager to share it with others, whether it is the sound of a voice, a found word, an interpretation of a text for all mankind, music without which the universe cannot communicate with us, or a movement that opens the doors of grace.
As a dancer and choreographer, I am not only proud of the dance, but also deeply grateful for it. The dance brought me luck. He became my morality, accustomed to discipline, and provided everything necessary to know this world.
He became the closest to me, giving me strength for each new day, filling me with his energy and generosity. His poetry gives me peace of mind.
Do I need to say that I cannot exist without dancing? Without the capacity for self-expression that he gave me? Without the self-confidence I have gained to overcome fears and break through dead ends?
Through dance, realizing the beauty and complexity of this world, I became a citizen. A special citizen who transforms the norms of life, remaining faithful to the hip-hop culture, transforming negative energy into a force for good.
Dance for me is a constant reason for pride. But, and feeling proud, I live with pain in my heart. I see that individual representatives of the working youth around me are disoriented and helpless, that they live in an atmosphere of tension and hopelessness, without hope for the future. Actually, and I am one of them, in fact - we are all one. And I, perhaps more than others, strive by my own example to help them find their way in life.
Doesn't the prosperity of each of us contribute to the prosperity of society?
Culture unites people more than reasoning. So show courage and take risks, regardless of the obstacles and hatred in your way; the beauty of the world will always be on your side. So for me is the dance with its ability to ignore social and ethnic differences, leaving only the movement of the body in all its beauty; a man who has returned to pure expression, unique and unifying.
I would like to end with a quote from René Char, whose words remind me day after day that no one is allowed to limit us to given roles.
“Catch your luck, hold on tight to your lucky break and take risks. Watching you, they'll get used to it."
So dare, fall down and start again, get up, dance - never stop dancing!

Murad Murzuki Murzuki

Translation by Julia Ardashnikova

A message to the International Dance Day 2013

in the Book of Songs,
of the Anthology of Chinese Poetry,

Damaged by the 10th century, the dated period from the 10th century. BC, said:
“Emotions move and take shape in words.
If words are not enough, we speak with sighs.
If breaths are not enough, we sing.
If songs aren't enough,
then our hands unconsciously dance
and our feet tap them out."

Dancing is a powerful way of expression.
He speaks of our joy, our fears and desires. He speaks of something elusive, and at the same time reveals the state of mind of a person.

As in many cultures around the world, the natives of Taiwan dance in a circle. Their ancestors believed that evil could not enter this circle. With their hands joined, they share warmth with each other and move in a common rhythm. Dance connects people.

The dance happens at the vanishing point. The movement disappears after it has happened. Dance exists only in the elusive present. How accurate! This is a metaphor for life itself.

In the digital age, images of movement take on thousands of forms. They are delightful.

But they can never replace the dance, because the images have no breath. Dance is a celebration of life.

Go, turn off the TV, turn off the computer, go and dance. Express yourself through this divine and majestic instrument which is our body. Go dance and connect with people in the waves of rhythms.

Capture that precise, elusive moment.
Go celebrate life in dance.

Lin Hwai-min, Founder/Artistic Director, Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan

Message for International Dance Day 2012

Celebrate the endless choreography of life 901 , art. It seems that art exists wherever a person lives - embodied in buildings or books, paintings or music. Or movement, or dance. In this sense, I believe that dance is the most modern, the most urgent lesson of history, because it is in constant relationship with the passing past and occurs only in the present.
Dance also knows no boundaries, as do many other art forms. Even when certain styles try to set borders or borders on themselves; the very movement of life, its choreography, its need for flow: this side takes over very quickly, allowing styles to connect with each other. Everything is involved in everything, naturally, and the dance lives only in the place where it belongs - the ever-changing present.
I believe that dance is perhaps the most honest form of expression worth caring about: because when people dance, be it a ballet performance, a hip-hop battle, an avant-garde contemporary show, or just a free disco, they rarely lie or dress up. masks. People imitate each other all the time, but when they dance, most often they imitate this moment of honesty.
By moving like other people, moving with other people, watching them move, we can better feel their emotions, think their thoughts and connect with their energy. And then, perhaps, we can know and understand them more clearly. I like to think of a dance performance as a celebration of coexistence, a way to give and create space and time for each other. We may forget this, but the deep beauty of the performance is that the masses of people sitting next to each other connect in one moment of experience. There is nothing personal about it: speaking is an extremely social experience. We all come together for this ritual that connects us to the performance, connects us to the one present.
So in 2012 I wish you a lot of dancing. Not to forget all the problems of 2011, but rather to solve them creatively, to dance with them, to find ways to connect with each other and with the world, to get involved in life as part of an endless choreography. Dance to find honesty and communicate, reflect and celebrate it.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Message for International Dance Day 2011

I think dance celebrates what makes us human.

When we dance, we naturally use our body mechanics and our feelings to express joy, sadness, and everything we care about. People have always celebrated important moments of life in dance and our bodies store the memory of all possible human experiences. We can dance alone and we can dance together. We can share what makes us similar and what makes us different.
For me, dance is a form of thinking. Through dance we can embody the most abstract ideas and thus discover what cannot be seen and named.
Dance is a connection between people, the connection of heaven and earth. We store the whole world in our bodies.

I think that in the end every dance is part of a larger whole, a Dance that has neither beginning nor end.

Message by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Message for International Dance Day 2010

Dance is a discipline, work, learning, communication. With it, we save those words that may not be understood by others, and in return we create a universal language familiar to everyone. He brings pleasure, he makes us free, he comforts us in the realization of the impossibility of flying like birds, bringing us closer to heaven, the sacred, the infinite.
This is high art that changes every time, so much like making love that by the end of each performance it makes our heart beat faster and look forward to the next time.

Julio Bocca, Argentina

Message for International Dance Day 2009

This special day, International Dance Day, celebrates a language that everyone in the world can speak, it is the innate language of our bodies and our souls, our ancestors and our children.

This day is dedicated to all the gods, teachers and ancestors who have ever taught and inspired us.

To every song, impulse and moment that has ever led us to move.

It is dedicated to a small child who wants to move like a star.

And the mother who says, “Yes, you can already.”

This day is dedicated to the bodies of every creed, color and culture that keep the traditions of the past in the stories of the present and the dreams of the future. This day is dedicated to the Dance, its myriad of dialects and its boundless power to express, transform, unite and give pleasure.

Akram Khan , UK

Message for International Dance Day 2008

The Spirit of Dance has NO color, NO definite shape or size,
But it is the Spirit of Unity, the Power
And the Beauty within us.

Every Dancing Soul, Young, Old, Disabled -
Create and implement ideas, changing and developing the Art.
Dance is a mirror that reflects how the impossible becomes possible.
So that everyone can touch, hear, feel and experience.

The sounds of our heart and Soul are our rhythm,
Each of our movements reveals the history of mankind.
This is the element in which the Human Spirit can cognize all the highest Freedom.

Every time our hands touch, something beautiful happens,
What the Soul remembers, the body tells through movement.
And then the Dance becomes a healing force available to all,
You are my eyes, and I am your feet.

Celebrate INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY,
With all the Passion for Dance to heal each other,
Unite your dance community,
And most importantly, be the Best you can rightly be,
We can unite through Strength and Spirit Dance.

GLADYS FACE AGULHAS, South Africa

Message for International Dance Day 2007

Man dances at birthdays, at weddings, in the streets, in living rooms, on stage, behind the stage. To convey joy and sadness, for a ritual or for a borderline experience.

Dance is a universal language: a messenger of peace, a messenger of equality, tolerance and compassion. Dance teaches us receptivity, self-awareness and attention to the present moment.

Dance is a manifestation of our vitality. Dance is transformation. Dance finds our soul, dance gives the body a spiritual dimension. Dance allows us to feel the body, rise above it, go beyond it, become another body.

To dance means to participate in the vibration of the universe by action.

Sascha Waltz , choreographer (Germany)

Message for International Dance Day 2006

Dance does not require a pen or brush.
The only tool needed is the human body.
Each movement is impregnated with dance. To move means to dance.

Dance requires total engagement of the body, mind and soul. Only those who are truly devoted to him enter the path of dance. This austerity shapes both the character and the body, and the reward of such devotion grows a hundredfold. No freedom is possible without the power of the spirit over the body.

For us Khmers, dance in its most perfect form is a way to get closer to the gods. Dance becomes prayer. It becomes a necessary ritual for us to move forward, it transcends us to the divine and elevates us to supernatural heights.

And let the dancers of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia be our mediators in this, on International Dance Day. So that, by dancing, we can strengthen everywhere the noble practice of tolerance, so important for humanity in 2006.

His Majesty Pre Bat Samdeh Pre Boromnet Norodom Sihamoni,
King of Cambodia

Messages for International Dance Day - 2005

The dance belongs to everyone.
He gives joy and delight to everyone
who dances and watches.

The language of dance knows no boundaries.
It transcends classes, education, countries and creeds.

His vocabulary is endless because human feelings resonate through movement.
Dance enriches the soul and elevates the spirit.

Dance lives inside all living things.
If children dance, peace will come to earth.

By Miyako YOSHIDA
(Dancer, UNESCO Artist for PEACE)

Just as a fish does not feel water, so a person does not feel the continuous, primordial dance of the world. So he chooses something and calls it dance.
This is when one is against Heaven and at one with Heaven.
Dance is the cry of the soul and body, merged in ecstasy.
It is impossible not to know how to dance, because everyone has a soul Dance is when words are superfluous.
You can dance any state of mind. If it hurts, I can dance the pain. If I love, love.
It allows you to correctly place spaces not only between movements, but also between letters.
I'm happy that I can dance.

By goodween, thecroaker, "hemulenka, onsamyi, lionnid, pullus_, na_kryliah

Message for International Dance Day 2004

Dance is the original, most ancient form of human expression. Through the body and the language of movement, dance acquires a deep connection with the emotional and spiritual world.

For Aboriginal Australian culture, dance is the essence, a form of sacred healing. The dance is rooted, connected with the spirit of Mother Earth. Until you surrender to the dance, you will not be able to hunt in peace. It is an integral part of human existence.

Preparing a new dance, I ask the dancers to absorb and digest the grain of tradition, to feel the original code inside, so that we can, by transforming, bring the essence of tradition into the modern world.

Dance is a universal language. It embodies human identity and a celebration of the human spirit. Dance is the creative heart of the kinship of all living things. Dance is the universal sacred medicine.

Stephan Page,
choreographer, Australia

Message for International Dance Day 2003

What is dance? If you are ready to answer this question, you can hardly be trusted. However, I will try: dance is thinking through the body.
Is it necessary to think through the body? Probably, survival does not depend on this, but the quality of life depends. There are many thoughts that only the body can think. Many things, such as peace on earth, are probably more important than dance. But we need a dance to celebrate the world. And exorcise the demons of war, as Nijinsky did. Anarchist Emma Goldman said it best: "If a revolution won't let me dance, it's not worth fighting for."
Lord Shiva created the universe with his dance. But dance is the opposite of all divine claims. The dance is rather a constant attempt, like writing on water. Dance is not life itself, but it allows you to keep alive those little things that make up a great life.

Mats Ek,
choreographer, Sweden

Message for International Dance Day 2002

Dancers, like all artists, feel and create feelings in other people.
We were all suddenly struck by the fire of feelings after the cataclysm of September 11, 2001.
Dancers have been given a great gift of movement and form. They live whole; body, mind and spirit unite in a single and uninterrupted action.
Keep dancing. Whatever happens, and, God forbid, the worst we have already seen, I tell you: "KEEP DANCING!"

Katherine Dunham ,
One of the first African American dancers, USA

Message for International Dance Day 2001

It seems that we have started walking.
We seem to be walking as long as the earth holds us.

William Forsythe ,
choreographer, USA-Germany

Message for International Dance Day 2000

The world of dance is a garden,
maybe not very big, but infinitely deep.
It has a place for everyone.
Make your own rules,
to break them,
to find new feelings,
new realities, new dimensions.

Jiri Kilian ,
choreographer, head of the Netherlands Dance Theater

Message for the International Dance Day - 1998

On the eve of death, a person remembers the happiest moments of his life.
He looks at the palms, his eyes are wide open. He calmly contemplates death and life, joy and sorrow.
This is the daily training of the soul, maybe this is just the beginning of the journey?
And here I sit, understanding nothing, where the dead play their games. Here I want to dance and dance and dance, wild grass life.

How can we dance when the world is burning

BEDS ARE BURNING - Midnight Oil

Pronunciation dictionary

Related playlists

Songs for when the world is burning – Good is Better

Lyrics Unknown - Learn to dance translation, lyrics, video, clip

Who is cooler?

Download

See also:

Dance Day Messages - Live Dancing

Message for International Dance Day 2022 from Kang Siu-jin, Korean ballerina

International Dance Day Message 2020 by Gregory Vuyani MAQOMA, South Africa Dancer, actor, choreographer and dance educator:

International Dance Day Message 2019 by Karima Mansour

International Dance Day Message 2018 by Ohad Naharin:

International Dance Day Message 2017 by Trisha Brown:

International Dance Day - April 29, 2016

International Dance Day - April 29, 2014

A message to the International Dance Day 2013

Message for International Dance Day 2012

Message for International Dance Day 2011

Message for International Dance Day 2010

Message for International Dance Day 2009

Message for International Dance Day 2008

Message for International Dance Day 2007

Message for International Dance Day 2006

Messages for International Dance Day - 2005

Message for International Dance Day 2004

Message for International Dance Day 2003

Learn more