International Dance Day

Happy International Dance Day!

We invite you to read a powerful message from Yvonne Ng — Ontario’s International Dance Day 2025 Ambassador, Artistic Director of tiger princess dance projects, and Curator of dance: made in canada / fait au canada Festival (d:mic/fac).

Through her words, she reflects on dance as a practice of resilience, tenderness, and embodied truth.

For those of us who live in dance, today is not a reminder of its value—it’s a pause. A moment to breathe, to reflect, to feel the ground beneath us.
Dance, at its best, doesn’t just perform for the world—it listens to it. It listens with the skin, the breath, the spine. It notices what’s shifting, what’s stuck, what’s still waiting to be named.
In my work—as choreographer, educator, and artistic director of tiger princess dance projects —I return again and again to the body as a site of knowing. Open Source Forms, the practice I carry and teach, reminds me: we are all born with grace. We do not have to earn our way into presence. We are already here.
This August, as curator and artistic director of dance: made in canada / fait au canada Festival (d:mic/fac), I’m honoured to once again gather artists who are daring, tender, and awake to the world around them. Their works move through struggle, joy, resistance, and care—reminding us that dance isn’t a luxury. It’s how many of us come to understand ourselves, and each other.
It’s not always easy to keep going. Resources are limited, hours are long, and much of what sustains us happens behind the scenes. And still—we return. Because we know the power of presence, of shared space, of embodied truth. Behind every performance lies a network of care—one that must be valued, supported, and sustained if dance is to remain a living force in our culture.
You don’t need to be a dancer to feel the truth of movement. You only need a body. You only need to listen.
To those who make, teach, witness, and carry dance: thank you. Let us keep moving—because in every step, we remember who we are, and who we might become.

Yvonne Ng
View Yvonne’s video message and IDD interview here

View PDF here IDD 2025 Message

Thank you to Dance Umbrella of Ontario for partnering on this initiative.

About International Dance Day

International Dance Day takes place on April 29th each year – mark your calendars! April 29th is the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), creator of modern ballet. Learn more

Founded by the International Theatre Institute the intention of the International Dance Day Message is to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language – dance.

Each year, an ambassador for Ontario is chosen to celebrate and elevate dance in our province.

Photos:

Untitled (Yvonne holding hands) — Photo by Chloé Delorme

In Search of the Holy Chop Suey — Choreography and performance by Yvonne Ng; photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

moment — Choreography and performance by Yvonne Ng; photo by Franck Boucher

Stone Velvet — Choreographed by Tedd Robinson (1952–2022); performed by Robert Glumbek and Yvonne Ng; photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

…level on my level… — Choreographed by Kevin O’Day; performed by Robert Glumbek and Yvonne Ng; photo by Dean Buscher.