I would like to dedicate this blog post to Dance4Children and the amazing work they do, as well as to my learnings at D4Cs Bootcamp4Children weekend this July.
What (and who?) is Dance4Children?
D4C is my favourite charity team, founded by a group of gorgeous, brilliant and warm-hearted dancers from Belgium.
Coralie, Lou, and Tamy are the ‘core team’, supported by volunteering dancers/teachers Alice, Laurie and Rosa.
August – A special time of the year
This week, 1st of August 2018, the Dance4Children team is celebrating their 8th birthday (Congratulations!), and on August 11th it will be 3 years since our ‘Shimmy Pact’ started; 10% of all ‘Shimmy Sessions‘ videos, MoveSpiration proceeds and T-Shirts sales have been (and will be) donated to D4C.
See the full D4C team ‘in action’ at www.dance4children.be/equipe
What do they do?
Dance4Children host and organise several creative projects per year for dancers/movers, and the proceeds of these events are donated integrally to specific charity organisations they collaborate with.
They make a point of visiting charity partners personally 1-2 times per year, traveling on their own dime to bring donations and supplies to their benificiaries, as well as teaching free dance/martial arts/self defense classes to children locally, including collaborations with volunteering teachers and/or artists.
Some of their past events include:
- Shoot4Children (in collaboration with the fantastic Philippe Rikir)
- Run4Children (20 km charity run in Brussels)
- Oriental4Children (a yearly show and workshop weekend in Brussels)
- Bootcamp4Children (a 3-day training weekend in the Belgian Ardennes)
Who will they support in 2018 (and 2019)?
This year as well as last year, the work of Dance4Children has been in support of Association Chameleon – Helping and sheltering abused young children in the Philippines.
You can see some of the amazing work they do here:
What is Bootcamp4Children?
Bootcamp4Children is a 3-day training weekend, set in an idyllic location in the heart of the Belgian Ardennes. Participants take full days of outdoor classes with amazing teachers for 3 days, and all proceeds of the weekend are donated to Dance4Children.
It was the first time for me to participate in this type of event, and I had a blast. I literally enjoyed every second of it, even the cardio(!) bouts.
Things I have learned during the B4C weekend:
- Breathing is immensely powerful. Whether it’s in dance, cardio, strength training, yoga, boxing(!) or flexibility work: how you breathe changes how you move,. How you move changes what you think, what you think changes how you feel. And how you feel changes your life. What!
- Yoga, martial arts, dance, or any movement art, when taught with the right intentions – (re)connects us with all of that.
- Learning/practising/thinking in a new language adds more than knowledge – it expands your soul.
- Boxing is all about energy flow, breath, and relaxation. Who knew?
- When I don boxing gloves, even borrowed ones, my name automagically changes to ‘Kabila’ 🙂
- Dancers can squat forever.
- It *is* actually possible to roll up a hill – As long as the motivation (and/or the motivating trainer) is strong enough 😀
- Football is instantly more fun if you add boxing gloves.
- It is possible to feel your abs for a full week after doing simple (but not easy!) bodyweight partner exercises.
- One does not necessarily need to know the rules of football (or any sport!) to be a succesful team captain – just find out who is knowledgeable and delegate 😛
- In charity projects you meet the most wonderful people.
- It is absolutely liberating and enlightening to learn a movement art’s basics from scratch.
- The more you learn, the more you learn.
Check out a video of the 2017 edition here:
And the 2018 edition:
Bootcamp4Children Teacher Team:
- Laurent (World Champion Shido-Boxing!) – Boxe, Strength and Cardio
- Rosa (Professional Yoga Instructor) – Yoga
- Tamy (Psychomotor therapist and professional dancer) – Stretching
2018 B4C participants:
How can I support/ participate in D4C’s projects?
If you would like to support the Dance4Children team and their amazing projects, keep an eye on their agenda, instagram account and FB page for upcoming events, and/or see the donations page for ways to help directly.
Follow Dance4Children’s adventures via the following links:
- On FB: www.facebook.com/dance4children.be
- Via Instagram: www.instagram.com/dance4children
- On Vimeo: vimeo.com/224611063
- On Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/CoraliePeet/videos
Thank you for reading/listening, and feel free to share this post!
xx K.