{"id":3980,"date":"2014-04-02T00:32:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T00:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/?p=3980"},"modified":"2014-05-02T19:15:55","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T19:15:55","slug":"world-stopped-dance-answer-better-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/2014\/world-stopped-dance-answer-better-place\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat if the world stopped to dance?\u201d we answer, \u201cIt would be a better place.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/2014\/04\/dance-anywhere\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-3981\" style=\"margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;\" alt=\"oakland-local\" src=\"http:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/oakland-local.jpg\" width=\"202\" height=\"117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/oakland-local.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/oakland-local-120x69.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/2014\/04\/dance-anywhere\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/static.oaklandlocal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Dance-Anywhere-659x439.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Apr 2, 2014<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Posts by C.J. Hirschfield\" href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/author\/c-j-hirschfield\/\" rel=\"author\">C.J. Hirschfield<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Comment on Dance anywhere!\" href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/2014\/04\/dance-anywhere\/#comments\">9 comments<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"View all posts in Arts &amp; Culture\" href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/topics\/arts-and-culture\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Arts &amp; Culture<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/tags\/childrens-fairyland\/\" rel=\"tag\">Children&#8217;s Fairyland<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/tags\/dance-anywhere\/\" rel=\"tag\">Dance Anywhere<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/tags\/national-dance-week\/\" rel=\"tag\">National Dance Week<\/a><\/li>\n<li>382 Views<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"related_posts\">\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;\">In her former role as publisher of\u00a0<\/span><em style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;\">Dance<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0Magazine, Oaklander Barbara Kaplan rubbed elbows with superstar dancers like Mikhail Baryshnikov, Martha Graham and Twyla Tharp. But last Friday at noon, she found herself dancing with about 100 toddlers and youngsters as part of National Dance Week\u2019s \u201cDance Anywhere\u00ae\u201d celebration at Children\u2019s Fairyland. And she had a blast.<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Barbara (who happens to be a friend of mine) and the kids were taking part in a worldwide public-art performance in which people from all around the globe, of all ages and artistic capabilities, took the time to stop \u2014 and simply dance. If you aren\u2019t yet convinced this is an absolutely delightful concept, check out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/danceanywhere.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">danceanywhere.org<\/a>\u00a0and try not to smile as you see folks from all over the world getting their groove on.<\/p>\n<p>Last week people danced in 432 cities in 50 countries on 7 continents. Here in Oakland, there were dance events at City Hall, Sibley Regional Park, the Oakland Museum of California, and West Oakland restaurant FuseBOX. We all were engaged, as the Dance Anywhere\u00ae website puts it, in \u201cdissolving the line that often separates art and dance in our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here at Fairyland we chose three songs guaranteed to get kids going with \u201cLimbo Rock,\u201d the Village People\u2019s \u201cYMCA,\u201d and Taio Cruz\u2019s \u201cDynamite.\u201d Shana Barchas, our education specialist, knows how to encourage interactivity and fun, and even our board member Ron Zeno joined in. Barbara and I couldn\u2019t resist, either. \u201cIt was just the best!\u201d said Kaplan. \u201cKids are open-hearted, and they haven\u2019t learned to shut down their inner creative selves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coincidentally, last month the International Journal of Education and the Arts published \u201cEngaging Families in Dance: An Investigation of Moving Parents and Children Together,\u201d which summarized a three-year study conducted by dance educators at UC Santa Cruz and Berkeley-based Luna Dance. The researchers noted \u201cthe power of moving together in time and space to help people build and rebuild personal relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I love that the study included these lines from poet Robert Frost:<\/p>\n<p>We dance around in a ring and suppose<br \/>\nBut the Secret sits in the middle and knows<\/p>\n<p>According to the researchers, \u201cthe secret\u201d is that empathetic, engaging, respectful and caring relationships are the key to a successful life, and dance is a powerful vehicle for growing and nurturing these relationships.<\/p>\n<p>When we posted photos of our danceathon on our Facebook page, parent Marijoy-Bombom commented: \u201cMy daughter and I were there with her entire kindergarten class! They had so much fun today! When we got back to Sequoia Elementary they all agreed the dance party was the best part [of their field trip].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Children\u2019s Fairyland has already committed to participating in next year\u2019s Dance Anywhere\u00ae event. When Dance Anywhere\u00ae asks, \u201cWhat if the world stopped to dance?\u201d we answer, \u201cIt would be a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And based on our experience last week, a lot more fun, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/oaklandlocal.com\/2014\/04\/dance-anywhere\/\" target=\"_blank\">original article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8221; empathetic&#8230;caring relationships are the key to a successful life, and dance is a powerful vehicle for growing and nurturing these relationships.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[644,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3980"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3984,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions\/3984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}