About Sharing Dance

Sharing Dance is a project of Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS), a world leader in the training of professional dancers and teachers. Dedicated to advancing the art of ballet, NBS develops dance professionals in a student-centred environment by weaving innovation and evolving practice with the finest teaching traditions. NBS graduates can be found as dancers, choreographers, artistic directors, teachers, and administrators in over 65 dance companies world-wide and even more schools around the globe.

The goal of Sharing Dance is to:

• encourage groups across Canada to learn a dance routine from the selection of instructional videos, rehearse it together and stage a performance in their local community, while showcasing the talents of Canadian choreographers and musicians.
• The site supports performing groups through the learning/rehearsal period and encourages all flashmob participants to post their performance videos online, allowing widespread audiences to view performances by groups across the country.
• Sharing Dance provides resource materials on how to plan and execute a flashmob performance with the goal of persuading Canadians from coast to coast to experience the joy of dancing.
• All the videos become part of a repository of Canadian talent and creativity.

The Sharing Dance site offers special resources for teachers and dance troupe leaders as well as a blog and forum, to further encourage interactivity between all participants, regardless of location.

To celebrate International Dance Day in 2010, (a UNESCO-recognized event designed to encourage non-dancers to participate in and enjoy dance), Canada’s National Ballet School performed a flashmob in the Toronto Eaton Centre. Over 300 people ranging in age from 6 – 82 performed the routine, resulting in a video posted on YouTube. The enthusiastic response from participants, audience members and viewers of the video led NBS to develop the Sharing Dance website as a way to engage a broader community in the joy of dance.