This year July 25th marks National Dance Day. A day when dancers and non-dancers a like join together from all over the country to indulge in a full day of dance activities. Sponsored by Nigel Lythgoe’s Dizzy Feet Foundation, National Dance Day was created in 2010 as a campaign to help fight obesity and maintain good health through dance. Official events are held in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and New York, with smaller events held all around the country.

On July 31, 2010 Congresswoman and proponent of healthy living, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a congressional resolution declaring the last Saturday of July to be National Dance Day. With the prevailing idea being that National Dance Day is for everyone, Lythgoe, Norton and other heads encourage others to start their own dance day event in their area. An Eventbrite site has been set up with access to event templates, and a featured listing in the official national directory, to make the process easier. There are list of tips for how to get started hosting an event at eventbritepages.com/nationaldanceday. A few suggestions and IDEAS for dance day events are hosting a flash mob, dance-a-thon, or raising money to provide dance for children who can’t afford it.

The official events at Grand Park in Los Angeles, Lincoln Center in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC are free and open to the public. Each year the Dizzy Feet Foundation and So You Think You Can Dance alumni create official choreography for participants to learn and perform in synchronicity across the nation. In the past there have been routines created by a variety of choreographers in a number of styles. From Hip Hop to Zumba and Pop to Freestyle, there has been a little something for everyone. This year there are two official routines, both choreographed to “Shut up and dance with me” by Walk the moon. The first routine choreographed by SYTYCD All Star Twitch, is a simple, beginners routine that most anyone can do. Whereas the advanced routine choreographed by SYTYCD All Star Travis Wall is meant to be a bit more challenging. The choreography videos can be found on the Dizzy Feet Foundations website http://dizzyfeetfoundation.org/national-dance-day/.

Participants are encouraged to learn the routines, film them and share them online, where they will be featured on Dizzy Feet Foundation’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and could be featured during a dance day recap on So You Think You Can Dance!