World Dance Party

Are you looking to build connections between elders and young people? Do you want to strengthen ties between neighbors of different ethnicities? Do you want people to have a space to have fun and express their community identity? You need a World Dance Party!

The idea is simple: It’s a big party lasting about three or four hours, usually held at a community, cultural, or senior center. Eight to ten volunteer dance instructors teach mini-lessons of about 15 minutes each, and everyone gets up and dances. It’s a potluck, so everyone brings a dish to share. There is no fundraising, campaigning, or lectures. Just food, dance, and fun- that’s it! Different neighborhoods around Seattle have now had several World Dance Parties, each one attended by 150 to 250 people! They are always fun and bring diverse neighbors together to build community like nothing else can.

This toolkit is designed to help you put together a World Dance Party in your city/neighborhood. Please feel free to use the templates and suggestions in here. There are sample budgets, press release, program schedule, sign-in sheet, donation solicitation letter, and ways to outreach.

By no means is this toolkit comprehensive. You are more than welcome to change things, as long as you make the event welcoming and accessible to everyone. Get the toolkit as a handy PDF, delivered right to your inbox, good luck, and if you need help, please feel free to be in touch at worlddanceparty@gmail.com

If you’re having issues with the form or have other questions, click here to request the free toolkit, or email Carl at creativeexchange@springboardforthearts.org.