We've all heard the message in school assemblies or PSAs before: Cyberbullying is a problem. But it feels so much more poignant when it's told through art.
In a powerful video celebrating National Bullying Prevention Month, a boring high school classroom is transformed into a stage with uniform-clad dancers.
The inspiring piece of art was made by MusEffect, a non-profit group that uses performance to raise social consciousness about current events. The dancers leap through locker-filled hallways and auditoriums, turning typical high school fights and drama into graceful choreographed routines that show the vulnerability and loneliness every teen goes through, whether they're the bullier or the bullied.
Meanwhile, poet Azure Antoinette recites a spoken-word piece about cyberbullying in the background. Antoinette says:
Someone who you follow on Instagram could be sitting right next to you and you have no idea how to interact with them face-to-face. So you just sit and double-tap their latest status because double taps have taken on the role of a real compliment and 'shares' have become approval and un-friending and blocking is now the way we express conflict.
But Antoinette adds, "No on could actually have 953,000 friends. No one person would be comfortable with 4.5 million human beings actually following them. So we could all settle to be a little more heart. A lot less bully. And far more human... "
Beautifully said, Azure.
[h/t Dance Teacher Magazine]
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