Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: International Dance Day special

Episode Date: April 27, 2025

A special episode of The Happy Pod for International Dance Day. From the Royal Opera House in London, we are hearing stories from performers and choreographers across the world.

Welcome to a special edition of the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and we're celebrating International Dance Day, hearing the stories of dancers and choreographers from across the world, like Roman Oleksiev. He proved doctors wrong. They said that he couldn't walk. He started dancing again. His strength is unimaginable. He's a really, really strong person. The ballroom dancer who survived a rocket attack then had a film made about his dancing and his perseverance. You can mimic a butterfly. You can squat and flail your arms like a chicken. People are like, cool, that looks amazing. You know, it'sail your arms like a chicken. People are like cool, that

looks amazing. You know, it's just anything goes. The Vietnamese culture of dancing into the wee small hours. The moment we found out everyone was very excited, we were all thrilled. At that very moment we created a new Guinness World Record exclusive to street dance. Plus we hear about people breaking world records in dance. We're here in the foyer at the Royal Opera House in London, home of the Royal Ballet. Hundreds of thousands of people come through the doors every year

to watch the performances Ballet. Hundreds of thousands of people come through the doors every year to watch the performances staged here. International Dance Day has been celebrated for more than 40 years, and around the world events are put on to celebrate all forms of dance, raise awareness of its value, and encourage those who are new to it to give dancing a try. Created by the International Theatre Institute, every year the organisation selects an outstanding dance personality to write a message to mark the day. We've voiced the message this year from the Latvian

American dancer and choreographer Mikhail Parishnikov. It's often said that dance can express the unspeakable. Joy, grief and despair become visible. Embodied expressions of our shared fragility in this dance can awaken empathy, inspire kindness and spark a desire to heal rather than harm. Especially now as hundreds of thousands endure war, navigate political upheaval and the rise in protests against injustice, honest reflection is vital. I asked the director of the Royal Ballet, Kevin O'Hare, why the Royal Opera House is and the rise in protest against injustice on its reflection is vital. I asked the director of the Royal Ballet, Kevin O'Hare, why the Royal Opera House is so significant across the world.

I think it's a brilliant coming together of dancers from around the world, all nationalities, across the country of course, across Great Britain, and they all come with one common purpose, and that is to transform their lives, but also transforming the audience's lives that come to see us. And what are you trying to achieve through your repertoire? Really to show how broad a style of dance ballet can be. On any week, you can come and see the Royal Ballet look very, very different. And I think that's wonderful. It's wonderful for the dancers, but it's also wonderful for the audiences to find ballets that can make them think, can make them feel joy, and then can make them feel awe at the amazing physicality

and breadth of emotion that dance can bring. And when other dance companies look to the ballet here at the Royal Opera House, I mean, what do you think you represent? I hope we represent the best of what ballet is about. I've had a lot of people coming to me from different companies around the world and they're so thrilled that we're now called the Royal Ballet and Opera because ballet has always maybe taken a back seat in the promotion around the world in big opera houses.

Now, Kevin, you were a dancer. Why do you love dance? I think there's, of course I would say, but there's nothing like it. It's so expressive and can tell you so much in one single movement and come to the core of humanity in a way of how you're feeling, whether it's joy,

whether it's sadness, whether you're elated to be in love or have not found love. All those stories that we tell, but also dance to me gets to the core of what life is about and it's soaffirming when you come to watch it. The other side to it is that it just feels good to dance, and we all do it. I do it in the corridors when nobody's looking,

because I've got the world's best dancers around me, but we all do it, whether it's in the kitchen or whether it's in the corridors or whether it's waiting for the lift, but I think it just makes you feel good. Kevin O'Hare. I asked visitors here at the Royal Opera House what dance means to them.

It's the magic, the costumes, the music, the movement, the whole, just the whole thing. It's just wonderful. My daughter, but she doesn't speak well English, is a dancer. It's everything. I mean, it dances she feels free. If you don't know anything about dance you can still appreciate it because it's non-language.

It's about people moving. I'm always in awe about how people can move so fluently. I guess it's something that brings you all together. You can understand ballet wherever you come from. That grace and that beauty is still there. Whether you're from the Far East, America, Australia, it still comes over the same to everyone. I think when people see ballet for the first time, they're staggered

without any doubt and they think why haven't I done it before. Now the story of a young Ukrainian boy whose love of ballroom dancing continued despite the ongoing war in his country. Eight-year-old Roman Alexei was badly injured in a Russian missile strike in 2022. Doctors said he'd never walk again, but he vowed he would dance. Dancing is a therapy for my leg and also for my hands sometimes. And it's dancing that develops me a little. If I just went to therapy, I would sit and think, ah, this is therapy, this is this, this is that.

But when I dance, I enjoy it. I don't try to boast or anything. I just live like a simple person. And I'm like, well, OK, I've been through something like this. I just do what I enjoy. I would say that firstly you shouldn't give up. At first, a lot of time it doesn't work out, but you have to try once, twice, three times, ten times,

and try until you succeed. And you don't have to rush, show off, boast or anything. Just learn slowly, step by step. Roman's story has been turned into an award-winning short film about his recovery and his attempts to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional ballroom dancer. The film is called Romchick, Roman's nickname. It won an award at the Cambria Film Festival in California and has been entered into other international film festivals.

Anna Murphy spoke to Konstantin Binyenko, the film's producer, and to Ilya Bondarenko, who stars as Roman. I remember the first time I saw this story in one of media, like some article, and I was deeply impressed and moved by this story. I felt like his story must be told worldwide. And Ilya, what was it like for you on set? I had a lot of emotions because I knew what the story is about and I know how much I need to work and how much emotions what emotions I need to have and as well as not crying sad because it was really hard because Roman lost his mother,

he survived such a, so many burns, he survived so many accidents, therefore he kept on going so I knew I had a big responsibility. What parts of the character did you most connect with? Perseverance because he proved doctors wrong. They said that he couldn't walk, but he proved him wrong. He started dancing again. His strength is unimaginable. He's really, really strong person. Konstantin, what were you hoping that people would take away from the film? I hope that Romchik, first of all, inspires people to see the incredible strength of children

and power of dreams. I would say that I wanted audience to walk away feeling not just empathy for Roma's journey but also admiration for his courage and yeah, I hope it serves a reminder that war affects innocent lives. And have you had any response from Roman or his family? Roman's father called me and he said, we watched it like five times. Thank you very much. It's incredible. The film is really very powerful.

So yeah, for me, it was probably the biggest award to hear such a good words about the film, because it a very personal story and a very sensitive topic and of course when we work on this film we're always thinking that the real boy and the father they will see this film and for them it's not just a film, it's the story of their life. In the film there's quite a lot of dance scenes and scenes where we see Ilya Roman dancing. Why did you want to include so much of that? I would say dance is a like universal

language. It expresses emotions that words sometimes cannot and for Roma dance it was a way to heal and to find a joy again and probably to reclaim a part of his childhood that war tried to take from him. It shows like how at the beginning of the film he dances, at the end of the film he dances, he always dances because that's his dream and he wants to follow it and he keeps on going and like through the dance he shows his emotions like when he dances in the park you can just see the pure happiness without the words when he dances with his mother We had one interview with Roman Alexia and we asked him. What do you feel when you're dancing? His answer was you know, like very simple and powerful He said because when I'm dancing I feel like I'm flying

Konstantin Budnenko and Ilya Bondarenko. Throughout this podcast, we'll also be hearing from other professionals we've been speaking to. We're calling it Dancers on a Postcard with their own personal stories of why they pursued dance as a career. Lillian Banks is a proud Yawara woman and storyteller, having choreographed original works at the Bangara Dance Theatre in Australia, a company of professional Indigenous performers. Growing up in a small town surrounded by culture, surrounded by family, you don't realise the importance of it when you're at home until you actually leave. You know, once I started dance, you just realize the importance of who you are,

where you come from, because that is you in the world. And yeah, in 2018, joined Bangara. We do indigenous contemporary. So it is contemporary, but the indigenous is our history and our stories. So it's pretty much, yeah, telling our history in a dance form. It's more grounded.

And I guess most of our movements come from the inside. It's very spiritually strong. My mum's an Indigenous artist and I've always dreamt of having a collaboration with mum. I always wanted to do dance, dancewear with indigenous culture on it. So having this opportunity, I was able to bring mum on board and have her designs on the dancers' costumes, which was really beautiful. Lillian Banks. In many countries, dancing is of cultural significance,

of course, for many in Vietnam Vietnam it's part of everyday life. There it's not uncommon to see people out in public at the crack of dawn just dancing. The BBC's William Lee Adams has been to Vietnam and spoke to Holly Gibbs. You see people dancing outside everywhere you go, particularly around big lakes and in public parks. So in Hanoi, the centerpiece of the city is Lake Wan Kiem. And honestly, from 5 a.m., you have people out there doing yoga, running around, playing with their chihuahuas,

and dancing. Now, these dance groups still have groups of old ladies dancing to sort of 1980s jazzercise. It's just so warm and inclusive. And then you have street dance. You have troops that perform in theaters, they perform in competitions, but they also just practice on the street. And they're interacting with the elderly people who are interacting with the young yoga people who are interacting with the runners. Exercise is bringing people together is the point.

In Vietnam, so much of life is lived outdoors. In the marketplace, on the street, people don't want to be cooped up in their houses. So they're in the park, at 4am, 5am, just hanging out. This is where people exchange recipes. This is where people gossip. I think that freedom is just such a part of Vietnamese culture. And it must make people very happy to be free and dancing outside. Absolutely.

The government actually calls public exercise spiritual food, and in that you have to include dance. I actually met with the Big Toe crew, that is a street dance group, and I said, why is your name Big Toe? And she said, Ms. Mai, the group's leader, she said, well, the Big Toe gives me balance, the Big Toe is important. But she told me that parents increasingly see this as something good for their kids. Every parent wants to bring their kids to dance studio or dance street for joining dancing

with the hip hop crew because they feel like they are so happy and so fun and stronger, healthy. She actually told me that sometimes her street crew will dance alongside elderly women and they have a great time. Yeah, we have some time like we go on the lake, then we start to dance like this and every lady, everyone here do with us. It's amazing sharing. Is dancing outside encouraged in Vietnam? Oh, absolutely. There are these billboards all over Hanoi, all over Ho Chi Minh City,

really any city in Vietnam, and they look like propaganda posters. They're painted in that socialist realist style. But they say things like, exercise for the health of your body and your family. The government wants people to move. And so you'll see policemen around the lake when people are dancing and they're encouraging it. They're kind of smiling. They're bopping along. I was out on this lake at 6 a.m. with the BBC's travel show we were filming just to get a sense of the vibe and it was not a case of beauty sleep, right? These people were up so early they were moving for beauty, right? They were showing you beauty in motion. It was just so

inclusive. And do you think that this is something that everybody in every country should do? You know, in a world where things are getting more expensive, people are worried about money, I think dancing on the street, exercising in public, this is free for everyone. This is the perfect solution to our doldrums. It's a way to snap out of the sadness and get you happy back. The Vietnamese I met with told me that they were closed off for decades and then they found the internet. They saw other people dancing.

They started feeling inspired and made that dancing their own. This is already global and I feel like it can spread even further. William Lee Adams speaking there to Holly Gibbs. Let's meet our next dancer on a postcard, Santino Morena. He's originally from Italy and now appears on Dancing with the Stars Norway and Let's Dance Sweden. It started when I was eight years old. I was living in Sicily, in Italy, and I was playing football and then it was one girl that I like her so much she asked me oh I need that dance partner would you like

to dance with me and then I went home and I said to my mom mom I need to start to dance for me like dance is like everything is a kind of a language a lifestyle and this like my biggest passion it's like my biggest passion. It's like through the dance I can express myself, process emotion and it's like a way also to connect with the people without words. So there is like, of course it's a hard work, full commitment job but it's really worth it. I'm very lucky that I can live with the dancing because I feel like dance allows me to feel

very alive and present. I think everyone really should dance every day that you will have a better day. Advice is really to dare to do it and really go all in. It's a new world. It's something that makes you a better person. It makes you to communicate with people in a better way. Because in the beginning it can be a little bit scary, go out from the comfort zone, but when you are able to do that, then you really can enjoy yourself.

Santino Morena. Santina Morena. You're listening to a special edition of the Happy Pod celebrating International Dance Day. Coming up... All the things that you would want and ask for in a student, Anthony has in spades. He's very much a leader in his group. He almost becomes, you know, sometimes I call him like my little ballet master. How a viral video launched the career of one young boy from Nigeria, earning him a place

at one of Britain's most prestigious ballet schools. Let's hear now from another one of our global dancers, Luba Mushtok. Luba was born in Russia and appears on the British TV show Strictly Come Dancing. My earliest memory of dance is dancing in my living room with a very big skirt that my grandma made for me. I was like two and then at the age of four, because my brother was teaching me, I started doing competitions. I was one of the youngest ones who did dance competitions in St. Petersburg. Dance means everything to me because it's been 31 years of me dancing. And it just, I guess, you know, if I really think about it, I think when I dance, it's the only one activity that

I do when I'm really in the moment and nothing else exists. No troubles, no debits, no bills, no nothing exists. It's just me expressing myself and discovering artistry through the dance in this particular moment in time. It's a very rare and it's a very beautiful feeling that I cherish and I absolutely love. Lubamushtok. Last week more than 7,200 people in the city of Chiang Mai in Thailand set a new Guinness World Record for the most people at a traditional Thai dance. It's just the latest dancing record to be broken over the past year. Peter Goffin

has been looking at some of the most dazzling dancing feats of the past few months. Three, two, one, go. Row on row on row of women and girls with golden flowers in their hair filled the streets of Chiang Mai, each of them wearing long brass points on their fingers to perform the Phon Lep, or fingernail dance, traditional to Thailand's Lana culture. World record attempts like these are offering people around the globe a chance to celebrate their heritage through dance. In February, 268 people in Washington set the Guinness World Record for the largest

stepping dance. That's an art form developed in black university fraternities and sororities in the 20th century. And it still has a major presence on campuses today. But it has its roots in West African folk dance, brought to the US by enslaved people who clap their hands and stomp their feet to make music at a time when they are banned by slave owners from having instruments like drums.

C. Brian Williams is the founder of Step Africa, the dance company that set the record. The body becomes an instrument. You know, we use our hands, our feet, and our voice to make music together, and it's also a very important way of expressing community. So for me, stepping at the very, at his room, as a coming together of individuals for a larger purpose.

Not every record-breaking dance is based in centuries-old tradition. Last year, nearly 700 people in Japan took part in the largest sign language integrated dance lesson. And more than 4,000 people in cities across China, most of them kids and teens, set the Guinness record for the largest street dance in multiple venues. Think breakdancing, hip hop, modern styles. Wenyi Jing is the artistic director of Chongqing Street Dance Alliance, the organizers. The moment we found out that we broke the world record,

everyone was very excited. We were all thrilled because at that very moment, we created a new Guinness World Record, a record exclusive to street dance. People set world records for all sorts of reasons. To challenge themselves, to put their communities on the map, to chase a bit of fame. But these dancers in Chiang Mai and Washington and Chongqing

are also celebrating who they are and what they love to do. They're dancing like the world is watching. Peter Goffin. Time for another dancer on a postcard, the ballerina Mayara Magri, who's a principal dancer here at the Royal Ballet. I'm originally from Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. Started when I was eight. It was an outreach program.

I have two other sisters and my parents couldn't pay for training. So we found this place that could teach dance for free and managed to get a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School. I'm so involved in the ballet that I'm doing, the story that I'm telling. Even if it's not a storytelling ballet, I feel like I'm just really committing to the movement and to the music, to the experience, other than actually thinking, wow, this is my theatre, this is my company. I feel like maybe think about that afterwards when I can't sleep at night because I'm too hyperactive after a show. We also heard from fellow principal dancer Calvin Richardson, who's from Australia.

I went to a really small ballet school in in Morwell and you know that sort of classic Billy Elliot story I went with my mum to pick up my sisters from dance class and then eventually I think I was about five I just started joining in I love performing I just the experience of the theatre and performing on stage that's always been the drive for me, I think. But in terms of the experience of dancing itself, I would still describe it as just like a kind of space. There's a rush and an adrenaline, but it feels like a stillness in a way, internally. You're just fully connected.

Four years ago, a video of an 11-year-old boy dancing on the streets of Nigeria went viral. Anthony Madu was filmed turning and leaping in the streets of Lagos, and as a result, he was offered a place at one of Britain's most prestigious ballet schools. Anthony is now a teenager and has been at the school since 2021. Anna Murphy went to his ballet school in Birmingham, in central England, to see how he's getting on. I was five years old when I discovered balne.

People think that it's not for boys. It's my dream and I have to follow. From dancing barefoot in the rain to the classrooms of Almhurst School, Anthony is pursuing his dream of becoming a dancer. At just 11 years old, he had to find the courage to leave his family behind. Happy for you, my son. Thank you for making me proud. I will miss you a lot.

Thank you. And the film, by Disney+, followed his experience of discovering that he had a visual impairment. He's been referred to the NHS to a specialist doctor. I'm OK, not that afraid. Mmm, I am. Why? There might be a point where I can't be able to kind of like dance. He's now been at Elmhurst for four years, and despite his fears about his eyesight,

he's still dancing. One, up. Back. site, he's still dancing. I'm here at one of the many dance lessons he takes every day. It's being taught by Alex Harrison, who told me that there's certainly something special about Antony. All the things that you would want and ask for in a student Anthony has in spades. Definitely I think moving away at such a young age and going through some of the things that

he's gone through I think it's probably definitely built his resilience. It also inspires the other students. He's very much a leader in his group. He almost becomes, you know, sometimes I call him like my little ballet master. In between the classes I caught up with Anthony and he told me that his favourite way to dance is by just improvising. Improvisation does affect whatever mood you're in because when I'm not feeling it, I don't do a lot. I do most need like floor work, but when it's like quite a fun class, I'll get

down, I'm basically up and do more jumps and more bigger movements. Moving to a different country and trying to make new friends and also having to communicate with new people and so for me it's really kind of increased my confidence in terms of communicating with people. I used to hate hate speaking to people. I don't know why I just never liked speaking but then now I just kind of could. Anthony has a few years left in his training here and his teachers say that his raw talent and resilient character will take him far. Anna Murphy talking to Anthony Madu. Our final dancer on the postcard is Shahzad Kossandi

from Iran. In her home country there are many restrictions on women performing but Shahzad co-founded a virtual organisation that's sharing Persian dance performances with people around the world. It's a virtual platform, and we try to bring the dancers from Iran together with Iranian dancers outside of Iran, or those who practice Iranian dance, together on one platform.

So that's been helpful to create a virtual international stage. Why is it important to support Persian Iranian dance? And the simple answer is that because there's no support for it in Iran. In fact, there are many obstacles and restrictions that make it difficult to continue to develop the art form. Seeing all these ridiculous restrictions just kind of fuels that drive to want to do the right thing I literally feel like I'm defending a defenseless animal You know just seeing the beauty in it and this lovely wonderful and powerful way of expression

That's just trying to be Stifled it just makes you want to stand up and say no. No, I'm not letting that happen It just makes you want to stand up and say, no, no, I'm not letting that happen. Shazad Cosandi. And now to the south of Italy, where an age-old dance that once served as a folk remedy now fills town squares with thousands of festival-goers. The pizzica started as a cure for women bitten by spiders. It's now a feature of the music festival La nota della taranta. Carla Conti reports. Each summer as the sun sets over the olive groves of Puglia in southern Italy, the sound of tambourines fills the air. In town squares and open fields, hundreds of thousands

gather for the notte della taranta or the Night of the Tarantula, one of the largest music festivals in Europe, to celebrate rhythm, movement and regional pride. One sharp stroke of the tambourine once marked the start of a very different gathering. From the early Middle Ages until just a few decades ago, women in the Salento area of Puglia experienced sudden bouts of anguish that they believed were caused by the bite of a mythical tarantula. Once bitten, the afflicted women, known as Tarantate, responded by dancing frenetically to a rapid, repetitive rhythm known as the pizzica. Tambourines, violins, accordions and singers all charged along at around 100 beats per minute, coaxing

the women into a trance that would often last three days and three nights, until the spider's poison was believed to have left their bloodstream. While the tarantula's bite was symbolic in nature, the pain experienced by the tarantate was far from performative. Alessandra Belloni is a percussionist and one of the world's few leading experts on southern Italian folk dances. Those people were very poor, so it really was the bite of the spider that they saw because they hallucinated and then would scream full back and say, I'm beaten, I need to dance. — In the 1960s and 70s, Italy underwent rapid modernization. But thanks to field recordings

made in the 1950s, many traditional folk songs from Salento were preserved, prompting a group of young locals to revive the pizzica. Sandro Capelletto, a music historian, says the dance went through quite the transformation. — They brought them to the stage dance went through quite the transformation. They brought the songs to the stage, they sang them in the squares, no longer as a cure for the tarantula's bite or as an expression of pain and poverty, but as an affirmation of their historical identity and of a possible happiness. That turning point led to the creation of La Notte della Taranta in the 1990s.

The festival travels across the Apulian region before culminating in a final concert in the town of Melpignano. For Alessandra Belloni, the healing power of the pizzica hasn't faded with time, it's simply taken on a new form. In her workshops around the world, she guides people through the movements once used by the Tarantate, helping them release stress and trauma. The first five women I worked with, they all had this kind of problem, they couldn't get pregnant. I know today at least seven women who conceived

after doing the pizzica with me. I know there is a value on this dance and this rhythm. Pizzica began as a cure, and for many, it still is. A space to move, to let go, and to celebrate. You've been listening to a special edition of the Happy Pod celebrating International Dance Day with me Valerie Sanderson. This edition was produced by Holly Gibbs, Anna Murphy and Harry Bly, sound design and mixing by Harry Bly. The editor is Karen Martin.

Until next time, keep dancing and goodbye.