About National Dance for Obama National Dance for Obama is a grassroots effort completely independent of the Obama campaign and was conceived of by Anjali Khurana, a dance choreographer from Boston. The initiative was led by a passionate team of artists, Obama supporters, friends, and dreamers of all backgrounds and professions who joined forces from cities across the U.S to assemble a simultaneous, multi-city flash mob.
Within 5 short weeks, a small organizing team pulled together a national effort which comprised of 19 cities, 22 organizers and 17 choreographers all doing flash mobs for Obama at the same exact moment in time – 3 p.m. EST/12 p.m. PST/9 a.m. HST – to a piece of music originally composed for these flash mobs using Obama's voice for its lyrics. This project was completely volunteer-powered, from the music producer and graphic/web design people to the choreographers, organizers, and 600+ participants who danced.
Our Goal With National Dance For Obama, we aspire to use the arts to fuel action. We want people to unite with a common purpose and feel empowered to play a role in the direction of our country. We hope to motivate young voters to volunteer for the campaign and excite them with the symbolism of coming together across the country. We hope to show that when we act in unity, we set things in motion. Hearing youth shout out a US President's name while dancing in the streets is not a common occurrence but that is the sort of excitement that this President and our national grassroots initiative inspired in people. We believe this project could have tremendous implications for the future of youth engagement in politics. We hope to build from its momentum and continue using the arts to encourage civic action.
Profile: Anjali Khurana
Founder/National Director and Boston Organizer/Co-choreographer Anjali Khurana was born and raised in Cambridge, MA. She received her BA in Neurobiology at Harvard University and an MPA in Management at Columbia University. She spent several years balancing work as a choreographer in Mumbai’s entertainment industry with serving in the public health sector of the city’s slums, returning in between to earn her Master’s degree. Her career has spanned working in public health, consulting for non-profits in the educational entertainment space, and working as a choreographer, performer, and actress in music videos, films, live shows, and commercials. Anjali has long been inspired by Obama’s story, the struggles he endured, the way he translated dreams into action, and his ability to empathize and share the struggles and dreams of people across economic and social classes. She believes in Obama’s vision for universal healthcare, wider access to higher education, and supporting the equality of every American citizen. Having recently returned to the US, Anjali watched the 2012 presidential race intensify and was drawn back to her graduate school days during the 2008 election, when she joined many colleagues in volunteering for the Obama campaign. This election cycle, she sensed the inertia of youth across the country who felt their actions would not translate into change. Anjali strongly believes that youth hold the key to progress and development and that we must engage them to in order to strengthen our country. As an artist, she believes that dance provides a form of communication and community for people unlike any other and is developing ways to merge the arts with healthcare/therapy, education, and community organizing. This, combined with a desire to increase enthusiasm in this year’s election, was the basis of her decision to launch National Dance for Obama. She hopes that with the National Dance for Obama, people will come together, enjoy the election process, and become motivated to take an active part in it. She strongly believes that when we act in unity, we set things in motion.
Participating Cities Anchorage Ann Arbor Atlanta Boston Charlotte Chicago Cleveland Dallas
Davidson Denver Honolulu Los Angeles Manchester Miami Newark North Conway
Philadelphia Phoenix Providence San Francisco Virginia Beach Washington DC Mumbai, India
Ms. Khurana on Arts and Civic Action "The re-election of President Barack Obama was both historic and galvanizing. The beauty of this president is his ability to awaken excitement in the hearts of the US electorate. His ability to relate to and empathize with his constituents across social and economic classes inspires people to take an active role in the political process. Not only has his official campaign itself been grassroots, but also people outside the campaign have taken to creating their own grassroots strategies to support his work. In our case, you find the creation of a completely user-generated, professional 3-minute film geared at Getting Out the Vote, http://bit.ly/SgJpBT (now at over 18,000 hits on YouTube), and based off of 500 people uniting to dance for Obama. Nobody asked us to do this but that is the type of enthusiasm that this President has inspired in people, one that has them dancing to vote! I hope the enthusiasm that National Dance for Obama organizers, choreographers, and dancers have shown across the US (and in India) will encourage other people, on any portion of the political spectrum to jump into the political process in creative ways. Creativity and innovation is the key to the progress and growth of our nation, as it always has been, but to see youth take the political process in their own hands will be to see the nation grow to historic levels.�
Continued … “In his speech following re-election, President Obama spoke to the nation saying, 'I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.'
Hope is what made this National Dance for Obama come alive. That stubborn hope that President Obama would be our presidential-elect for another 4 years. That stubborn hope of mine and my organizers/choreographers across the country that this initiative could be something more than a dance. When I set out to launch this initiative, I was told I should simply do a flash mob in one city - Boston. Or, in a maximum of 3 cities. Or, to experiment with a couple of cities and see what happens and if it takes off. I was told it would be too difficult to do anything more than that. It was difficult. But to me, the excitement was not in doing a flash mob itself. It was in creating a unified movement across the country. The flash mob was a conduit for something greater. It was a way to engage the millennial generation, the youth and especially young women, who were so crucial to this year's election. It aimed to engage individuals who would not typically be involved in politics and volunteering for political campaigns and turn them into ambassadors of getting out the vote.”
Press Highlights
Engaging the Youth
Connect with Us …
• • • •
Website: www.nationaldanceforobama.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalDanceForObama Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeDanceForObama YouTube: www.youtube.com/WeDanceForObama