Ball games, music quiz, platefuls of healthy food, Limbo dancing, sack racing and other creative playful activities filled a sunny and clear afternoon in Primary School Savremena’s yard.

Kids made the best of this opportunity to enjoy themselves and playfully compete in one activity after another. This is how Savremena celebrated the International Dance Day!

The International Dance Day (29 April) is celebrated all over the world, in honour of dance as an art form, and its universality, which transcends cultural and national boundaries, bringing people together through the universally understandable language of dance.

Of course, this worldwide celebration is also held – perhaps primarily – to honour the joy of childhood. As dancing is inside everyone, it strongly reminds one of childhood – the age when we are at our most playful and cheerful. This is when we learn how strong and full of possibilities we are, and expand our horizons towards our future deeds.

NICE DAY FOR DANCING AT SAVREMENA

Students had a great time under teacher Milica Babin’s cheerful supervision. The weather was conducive to good cheer, with the sun shining extra enthusiasm into the proceedings. This good cheer needed to be matched by a lot of concentration in order to properly perform all the movements designed to boost the children’s coordination and focus – running with the ball, games without frontiers, countless sporty feats to reach the goal.

And then, of course, dancing to music – Limbo dancing, which caused quite a sensation. Some managed to pass under the bar, while others fell in a variety of funny ways or simply gave up. We also set the brains in motion, to see what we know about healthy living, what we learned and how great our knowledge has already become.

Another sensation were the fast and sweet, but healthy delicacies. Namely, the students were welcome to take part in an unusual competition – one in eating phenomenally healthy meals. The faster the food disappears from the plate – the healthier the eater; the fastest one takes the sweet victory. This extraordinary event was accompanied by cheering, excitement and sportsmanship – shaking the winner’s hand.

Because, after all, are we not all quite health-savvy people here at Savremena?

INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY – IMPORTANT DATE FOR CULTURE AND ART

As great dancers like to suggest, dance involves contact and sharing with another. In this day and age, perhaps it makes it an act of rebellion. If it does – more power to it, because dancing is never wrong. We can even dance alone, in our hearts, and if making a connection with one’s inner self is the greatest act of rebellion – well, we know what we stand for.

Perhaps this exact way of thinking led the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), UNESCO’s main partner for the performing arts, to establish 29 April as the International Dance Day in 1982. It is the anniversary of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre, the creator of modern ballet.

Each year, the International Dance Day articulates an important message for the whole world: how important it is that people connect, through the universal language of dance, overcoming cultural and ethnic barriers. This year, an extra message is implied: dancing always helps – now it’s our turn to help the dance.