International Dance Day was celebrated just a few days ago and is a global celebration of dance, created by the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute, the main partner for the performing arts of UNESCO.
The event takes place every year on April 29, which is the anniversary of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre, the creator of modern ballet.
T&T's Sohan Badall, an East Indian Dancer, in commemorating the special day passionately explained that "Truth be told, dance, like many other art forms, is a language of its own and if you pay attention closely to someone dance, you can understand their feelings, emotions and message without any verbal communication. Dance is the way we express ourselves when words are insufficient."
Badall added, "The joy I feel over new found love, the determination I have in the face of great sorrow or adversity, the passionate fire of my youth and the peacefulness of my softer and more graceful years – maybe they are never expressed more fully than through my dance performances."
"We all want to be understood, and if we could truly speak the words that describe our feelings, how deep and powerful they would surely be. But alas, those words never seem to come to us just right. That is what dance is, dance is the ability to convey some of my most meaniful thoughts, feelings and messages accross without having to worry about finding the right words, " he added.
Badall said he is often asked, Why do you like to dance so much?
Dance, he said, is the medium through which he shows the world who he truly is and who he can be.
"One of the greatest things dance do for me as a gay guy in a third world country, Trinidad, is it allows me to live my truth on stage, it brings out my creativity on a different level and allows me the freedom to bring forth my alter/inner personality through 'drag' when I am on a stage, " he added.
The best part about dance, according to Badall, is "literally anyone can do it. With the right teachers, it’s fun and easy to do. Literally, the hardest part is taking that first step…to pick up the phone, to schedule a lesson, to walk inside a dance studio. Once you take those first steps, the steps on the ballroom or stages are as easy as a breath of fresh air."