The history of Dance4Life

Two men shared a dream, and decided to pursue it. It was a dream so powerful that hundreds of thousands of people around the world now share it. It was a dream about a gathering of people who love dance and who love life. A dream of a world united in pushing back HIV and AIDS, with one message:

Dance4Life isn't just a dream that belongs to two men anymore, it is a reality belonging to everyone who wants to be part of it.

Since then Dance4Life has grown and shaped into the biggest youth movement in the world with the goals of halting HIV. And we feel as though we've only just started.

What have we achieved between 2003 and 2006?:

- 173,000 youth participated in the Heart Connection Tour
- 52,000 young people became Agents of Change
- Distributed an amazing 3 million Dance4Life condoms to youth
- Over €3 million raised for local HIV prevention projects in the Global South
- “Dance4Life” anthem by Tiësto feat. Maxi Jazz was a worldwide hit

We have a goal - by the Saturday before World AIDS Day 2014, we will have created a total of one million Agents of Change. An Agent of Change is a young person who has participated in Dance4Life Schools4Life and is actively involved in pushing back HIV and AIDS.

The Netherlands The last Event was in 2006, but the other Schools4Life activities have been happening each year, every year. The 2006 Event was amazing - ten countries took part with tens of thousands of young people dancing 4Life in three continents. To understand the effect Dance4Life can have in uniting today's generation around the world, watch the Moodclip or the Live Connection that linked the Events via satellite

In 2004, during the first Dance4Life episode, thousands of youth in the Netherlands, South Africa and Indonesia participated. Again via satellite dancing school youth from the Netherlands could watch those dancing in South Africa. Millions of television viewers watched what happened on TV.