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Founded in 1973, based in The United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Paris, France office, The
International Dance Council (CID) is the only official world-wide
umbrella organization for all forms of dance in all countries of the
world. www.cid-unesco.org
Here is a message from Prof. Alkis Raftis, President of The
International Dance Council: "The United Nations proclaimed 2010 as
International Year For The Rapprochement Of Cultures and designated
UNESCO as lead agency in this celebration, having regard to its
experience of more than 60 years in advancing the mutual knowledge and
understanding of peoples.
Irina Bokova, the new Director-General of UNESCO, has proposed a
universal vision, which she has called The New Humanism; a vision open
to the entire human community, providing a humanist response to
globalization and crises, aiming at the safeguarding of social cohesion
and the preservation of peace.
Dance, being a central part of every culture, constitutes the ideal
means for bringing together people from different countries. Festivals
promote in the most lively manner reciprocal knowledge and respect of
diversity; there are hundreds of millions attending international dance
festivals each year.
Teachers offering classes in foreign countries provide immediate
bridges of understanding ingrained into the bodies of dancers; there
are tens of thousands of dance teachers crossing national borders
yearly. Congresses and open conferences provide opportunities to
showcase one's work to an audience of peers; there are dozens of
international meetings of dance researchers, historians and critics in
any given year.
Even outside festivals, classes or conferences, simply watching on
television a dance from a foreign country offers the most striking,
appealing and convincing image of another ethnic group. For vividly
illustrating cultural diversity, for embodying rapprochement, there is
no better means than dance."
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