Global Water Dances 2023

On June 10, 2023, Global Water Dances will be bringing people together on six continents to perform community-based dances to raise awareness of local and global water issues. Global Water Dances has been holding this event every two years since 2011, with dancers worldwide performing the same choreography to the same music at 3pm local time. 

“We are thrilled to have 120 sites participating this year,” said GWD Artistic Director Vannia Ibarguen. “The magic of this event is that there are dancers performing outdoors, beside a body of water. Dancers and audiences get a heartfelt, somatic connection to the importance of water to our planet. And we’re so happy to be returning to live dancers and audiences after having to gather virtually during the quarantine.”  

Ibarguen hailed the launch of the Global Water Dances Education Program, which has begun distributing curricular activities and professional development opportunities for teachers in early childhood, K-12, university, and community-based education. And there is online access to GWD Site Leaders and GWD Educational Leaders committed to participatory arts and environmental activism. 

The organization also offers micro grants to some of this year’s dance sites, enabling dancers at those sites to connect with local environmental groups to highlight important local water issues. These grants also pay for research on the impact of the GWD dance event on communities, building a growing body of evidence of the impact that the event has locally. Grants went to 20 sites this year. 

Global Water Dances is a program of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York. 

To find the closest Global Water Dances location visit www.globalwaterdances.org