DWB WAS CREATED TO SUPPORT 3 MISSIONS
SERVE AS A COMMUNITY CATALYST TO RAISE COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
We set the conditions in place to support the spiritual, collaborative and creative rebirth of artists, community facilitators and filmmakers seeking to elevate consciousness of social movements and culture.
We intend to do this by launching a collective dedicated to support one another virtually and through an in-person learning laboratory based in the power of authentic creative expression, the way of council, storytelling, peer to peer support, collaborative creations across disciplines.
REACH THE HEART OF CIVIC SOCIETY AROUND PRESSING ISSUES & IGNITE NEW VISIONS FOR HUMANITY
We fuel the soul of social movements by amplifying important call to actions. We do so by bringing participants home within and help communities experience the future that’s wanting to be born. In collaboration with artists, filmmakers, non-profits partners, affiliate networks, concert producers, corporate partners and civic society, we catalyze powerful collective experiences in public spaces that reminds us what it means to be human and connects us to the evolutionary impulse that’s calling us forward in service to life.
SUPPORT THE CREATIVE CONCEPTION OF INTENTIONAL GATHERINGS
Through mindfulness, space design, art, rituals, storytelling and inspirational films, we help to build a strong field of resonance, coherence, connection and shared vision in concerts settings, conferences, festivals or strategic retreats.
WHO WE ARE
We are bridge-makers, storytellers, community weavers, social artists and movers and shakers who are engaged (or want to be engaged) at the intersection of politics, art, community, healing, collective renewal, digital media and transformative storytelling.
Our circle of peers is composed of community activators, visionaries, social alchemists, earth lovers, unifiers, poets and organizers. It also includes people who are inspired to join meaningful creative actions and share their gifts to create extraordinary moments where everyone is included and honored. We love to dance, sing, be real, shed light on our shadow and the shadow of our social fabric. We come together to give expression to the grand rite of passage of our time; a story meant to inspire, speak truth and offer a regenerative vision for our future.
We are shy and bold. Big and humble. We see ourselves as part of a growing web.
We are red, yellow, white, black and brown, young and wrinkly. Our passion for self and collective actualization through creative cooperation and for stewarding all that’s alive brings us together.
JOIN THE TRIBE
Sign up for updates, invitations and discover the latest collective creations JOIN USDWB’s Council of Advisors
Joanna Macy, teacher, author & elder
Jeffrey Smith, Lead GMO movement builder, author and dancer
Rae Abileah, former co-director of CODEPINK Women for Peace
Wael Hmaidan, Executive Director, Climate Action Network
Paul Hawken, Writer & serial entrepreneur
Rachel Bagby, Writer, Facilitator, Elder & Social Artist
Loren Cole, President of Inquiring Systems
WHY DANCE THE WORLD AWAKE?
TO ALCHEMIZE DARKNESS INTO LIGHT WITH GRACE & BEAUTY RATHER THAN PUSH OR DEMAND.
We build a magnetizing field of love, understanding, compassion and forgiveness as a means to address the most complex issues of our time. In the face of war, poverty, environmental destruction and social injustice– embodying the feminine principles are nothing less than essential to establishing lasting resilience for life on Earth.
TO RECLAIM THE ANCIENT POWER OF RITUALS, MUSIC AND DANCE
Participation in intentional ritual through art, movement and voice supports us to be awake in our choices, to remember what matters most, and to amplify our focus our priorities impact through the lens of community.
TO LIBERATE & STRENGTHEN THE WEB & THE SOUL OF COMMUNITY
Each time we give ourselves permission to dance in community for the sake of liberating ourselves and all beings – deep healing takes place and life-force energy is released. Such engagement is empowering, uplifting, unifying and transformative. It creates the field of trust, mutual caring and joy that is at the essence of a peace culture.
TO RECLAIM THE POWER OF THE BODY
To be present in the movement of this precious body is perhaps our greatest gift, and our greatest task. We live in a society that has conditioned us to use our bodies as machines at the service of tasks or, for women, often been objectified and sexualized. Dancing Without Borders invites you to connect to your own power as you deeply embody your highest intentions and let go energetically of old stories and patterns stored in the body that do not serve [your] life anymore.
TO GENERATE COHERENCE, LOVE AND BEAUTY IN THE FIELD OF ACTIVISM
Collective and intentional dance experiences bring us face to face with our shared human experience. Effortlessly dissolving the imagined barriers across age, gender, race, nationality, class and creed, these powerful and uplifting collaborative events amplify our sense of belonging and connectedness, and leave no one behind.
The real experience of co-creating and sharing, beyond anything we may have previously realized, gives the lasting gift of an expanded imaginative capacity for great change. This growth of the heart, which we carry forward into every aspect of our daily lives, is the tool which subtly sculpts and broadly transforms the social global landscape.
OUR MOTUS OPERANDI
Standing at the intersection of movement building, collaborative art for the common good, soul and politics, all DWB efforts build on the following principles:
Collective creative expression is not a luxury. Our future depends on it.
Embodied ritual heals divides and supports the emergence of wholeness within and around us.
Holding a shared vision can shift the collective consciousness creating a foundation for a sustainable future.
Sharing and receiving personal stories has the power to shift the collective cultural narrative.
The patterns and wisdom of living systems are the basis for a life-enhancing society.
By dancing together on behalf of something bigger than ourselves we tap into the mystery and intelligence that underlies life and opens us to our true nature.
By incorporating these principles into its programs Dancing Without Borders aims to embody the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible alive. These moments serve as glimpses of and guides for what life can be.
Dancing Without Borders’ Manifesto
By Magalie Bonneau, Founder
Born to Be Wild, Free & Celebrate
We’re born wild creatures of nature seeking to feed life within and around us. We believe there is great power in attuning our natural rhythm, root ourselves in the earth and celebrate our vitality. We dance to reclaim that innate wildness, kindle our creative fire, shine light on the power of our humanity, spread inspiration, and unleash our courage to be real, fierce and embodied visionaries.
Given our dominant culture of separation, many have lost this innate connection to life, leaving the world and the land in distress. The time has come to let our feet move, dare to feel what’s most alive inside, and embody the kind of world we want to leave to our future generations.
We are the storytellers & the social artists weaving the new story of the 21st century.
We are the midwives of the evolutionary culture we’ve been longing for. It’s time to disrupt day to day life and turn public and virtual spaces into playgrounds amongst which poets, unifiers, musicians, community weavers, dance lovers and filmmakers join forces by embodying joyfully and publically the regenerative cultural narrative that is worth living for.
Dance, Love & Revolution.
Our healing power of dance and rituals as a vehicle for peaceful and transformative revolution. May we unleash the renewable energy that lives within us, unlocking our agency and sharing our collective joy as fuel for the movement. We dance to discover, exercise and awaken our inner resilience and resources. We dance to celebrate who we are and remember what it means to be human, together. We dance to heal ourselves. We dance to celebrate how we belong to life. We dance for joy. We dance to process our grief. We dance to clear what holds us back from seeing and stepping courageously into a new culture that works for all. We dance to feel what’s painful and what’s beautiful, to know the depth of our resilience and wholeness.
Beauty and Authenticity is our North Star.
Our community turns ordinary day to day moments into fabulous moments of beauty, connection and serendipity. Through our presence, joy, art and the ‘collisions’ that occurs as our lives intersect, we cast a spell of enchantment, making the world a more beautiful place to be.
Make the dance your own. Claim it and share it.
Our community dance for what it cares for. Make your dance authentic and infectious. Make social media your ally ready to amplify your message. Share your truth from your heart. Convey your solutions. Make it small. Make it big. By sharing who you are and what’s alive in your community you help to build a movement and shift the cultural story.
We believe in the power of dancing to embody the DNA of the culture we aspire toward: one that’s uplifting, regenerative and authentic. As we dance we alchemize our pain into forgiveness, personal and collective power, raise awareness and gather strength. By doing so, we restore our relationships to each other, the earth and our life calling. Feed what feeds you and shine!
Radical inclusivity.
The world won’t be free until everyone is free. What affects you affects me. The current socio-political-ecological context is asking us to collectively rise. Participants of all ages, abilities and walks of life are welcome. The dance is adaptable. Make it yours. Make it work for you. Invite your people. We’re all in this together.
We live on sacred ground.
Our community honors who we are in relationship to our place with dignity and reverence. We believe that honoring those who’ve come on this land before us is core to restoring life. By turning the streets and public spaces into our dance floor we honor the sacredness of our places. Our dances, rituals and films honor for what’s most true in our own lives, for our communities and for our land.
We won’t solve the most complex issues from the same level of consciousness that created the problem.
We believe the mind has its limit to support wellbeing of ourselves and our communities. We honor our full body intelligence as a means to raise our self awareness and dance our way out of the chaos of our time wisely. Movement offers us a powerful doorway into accessing our embodied wisdom and build a strong community across borders.
Leaving No Trace
Our community respects our eco-system. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up to leave places in a better state than when we found them, whenever possible.
Civic Responsibility
Our community who organize events assume responsibility for public welfare and embody respect for all participants. We assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
Communal effort empowers the best of our nature
Our community is committed to be radically participatory, community oriented and value collaboration across disciplines. We believe that transformative change in the individual and in social systems can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We make the world real through creative actions that connect and open the hearts. By overcoming barriers that stand between us we recognize with empathy and compassion the reality of those around us.
Be a force for harmony, bridge-making and coherence
We are committed to be a peaceful influence, knowing that how we show up, empowers and inspires those around us. Our focus comes from building a field that lives beyond right doing and wrong doing. We believe that no productive lasting change can occur through division.
