Something that is lacking in our community is a sense of unity amongst young and old and between those of different backgrounds. Young people have the capacity to change this.
On Dec. 10 from 3-5pm, Everybody Dance Now! will hold its second Breakdance Project Santa Barbara Workshop. Last year, the Breakdance Project workshop was held at Harding Elementary School on the west side of town. This year, Everybody Dance Now!’s is holding the workshop on the east side of town at Franklin Elementary School to further their message of unification.
Breakdance Project Uganda is a program that shares the same fundamental vision as Everybody Dance Now! but seeks to achieve it through a different model.
Like Everybody Dance Now!, Breakdance Project Uganda uses dance for positive social change and demonstrates how dance can be a powerful universal force for enriching people’s lives and unifying communities.
But Breakdance Project Uganda differs from EDN! in that it brings hundreds of students together at one location at one time.
Emphasizing that everyone is a student, everyone is a teacher, and everyone has the capacity to make a positive difference in another’s life,
BPU draws on the various elements of breakdance culture to develop social responsibility in Ugandan youth.
In January, The EDN! Team partnered with Breakdance Project Uganda in establishing a similar program in our own local community.
Breakdance Project Santa Barbara provides a place where families, students, youth, and community members can learn and teach.
BPSB strives merge the various sectors of our community, advocating the importance of a supportive, accepting, and unified environment in which our community’s young people can engage in healthy self-expression.
By building connection amongst community members of diverse ages and backgrounds, BPSB is introducing positive outlets and encouraging role models into the lives of Santa Barbara youth.
Breakdance Project Santa Barbara is rooted in the power of music, movement, and mentorship.
Breakdance Project Santa Barbara is unique in that it is providing to our local Santa Barbara community in a way that no other foundation is. BPSB is engaging not only young people, but the program is captivating the attention of an entire community.
EDN! serves a young population that is often on the receiving end of community support, but what sets Everybody Dance Now! students apart is that they are given the opportunity to give back to their community themselves.
Everybody Dance Now! student Pablo said, “Dance makes me feel like I am doing something that matters.” Breakdance Project Santa Barbara goes farther with this idea by eliminating the separation between the “receiving” and the “giving”—between student and teacher.
Last year, Over 200 participants  moved to the beat of the music and the cheers of a gathering crowd. Babatunde Folayemi, former Santa Barbara City councilman and now international youth advocate, gave the keynote address saying that “This is what we work for. This is the future.”
This year, the Everybody Dance Now! team hopes to draw an even larger crowd. Using dance as a platform for social change, the EDN! team hopes that BPSB will become  a community tradition of unification and support.